Running
by ThaliaRules0501
Summary: Our favorite heros are on the run. A new prophecy has been told, this scares Zeus, and who knows what he'll do when he feels threatened. Gods imprisioned, teenagers on the run, plenty of dangers threatening to kill them. Ah, perfect time for romance. Thalico and Percabeth. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Annabeth's POV

Gods, Olympus was beautiful. I was humming to myself as I strolled to the throne room and trotted across the long bridge. I needed to ask Zeus for permission to start the construction of the Nyx temple. I came to a stop in front of the throne room door; it was painted a glowing gold and was about seven feet taller then I was. I saw a glowing light sneaking out from under the door and decided to stop and listen to the meeting. It would be rude to walk in uninvited. It sounded more like a war than a meeting.

"You are not killing my son!" A familiar voice screamed. I couldn't quite place who it belonged to.

"Neither are you killing my son." A said voice as cold as ice.

"Killing my daughter and her friends is not right, after all they've done for us you can't just kill them off like a bunch of monsters. Even though I don't like that sea spawn of yours." My mother's voice said in a calm manor.

Wait, daughter? Sea Spawn? Friends? They must be talking about Percy, Nico, Thalia and me. I assumed that the cold voice was Hades, and the familiar one Poseidon. Hold on, they want to KILL US! My mother would never let that happen. I need to see this, I thought as I peered through a crack between the double doors.

"Your daughter, Percy, Nico, and Thalia, were mentioned in a prophecy that could over throw our power. Even though they weren't the ones who were said to overthrow us, they were mentioned so we have come to the conclusion to kill them." Apollo explained in a cocky voice.

"Zeus what do you have to say about all of this?" My mother asked.

"I need some time to think about what we should do." He said looking pained while sitting on his throne.

"You would betray your own daughter?" Poseidon asked.

"If that's what has to be done to insure we keep our power, I will have to."

"Aw, my favorite couple will be killed. Oh well, there will be a new one in a decade or so." Aphrodite said, solemnly.

"No one will say anything about this to Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, or Nico. I will send out the message to Chiron to tell them to come to Olympus, where we can kill them properly." Zeus explained.

"There will be no killing of my son if I have anything to do with it." Poseidon said.

"Fine, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis trap him— somehow." Zeus demanded

"I guess you have to take me down too." Athena said.

"Really, Athena, you aren't wise enough to see this is the right thing to do?" Zeus asked.

"It isn't the right thing to do."

"Well, Hermes and Ares get her." Zeus commanded.

The two gods put up a good fight. Unfortunately, it wasn't long 'til they trapped Athena and Poseidon. It wasn't a fair fight. I mean, it was two against six. I watched in horror as they dragged my mom into a golden cage. The other Olympians also imprisoned Percy's dad. They lay solemnly against the floor, adjacent to each other, knowing that they had lost the small, decisive battle. Zeus smirked.

Hades stood beside Zeus. The god of the dead looked austerely at his caged family.

"Well, Hades will you return to the underworld and not speak of it? I will find you if you do." The lightning god warned.

"I will return to the underworld, but I will help my son somehow." He said before disappearing leaving a cloud of wispy, black vapor in his wake.

After that, I ran back to my office and grabbed a golden drachma off my messy desk, and I ran outside to the sparkling fountain. I threw the drachma in and said, "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accepts my offering, Percy Jackson, Camp Half-blood."

Suddenly, I saw Percy cleaning his cabin at the last minute for cabin inspection. He was wearing a dark, green v-neck that made his eyes pop and show off his muscles. He had that effortless beauty that pulled every girl in—including me.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," I said, making Percy jump three feet off the ground.

"Gods, Annabeth, couldn't you have waited until I saw you instead of scaring me all the time?"

"Where's the fun in that?" I said while smiling innocently.

"Well, whatcha need?"

"Oh, I have to tell you something important. You might want to sit down."

"Okay, what is it?" He said looking confused as he sat down slowly on his bed.

"The gods want to kill Thalia, Nico, you, and me. I heard them talking in the throne room today. Athena, Poseidon, and Hades stood up for all of us, but Zeus and the other gods wouldn't listen. Athena and Poseidon are trapped in cages because they refused to listen. Hades returned to the underworld to watch over the dead, but he swore he would help his son though." I said, explaining quickly.

"Why do they want us dead?" Wondered Percy aloud.

"They mentioned something about a prophecy and the overthrow of power, even though the prophecy didn't say we were the ones doing the over-throwing. They just want to kill us because we were mentioned."

"Thalia was just kicked out of the Hunters this morning, could that have something to do with it?"

"Probably, so she's back at camp?"

"Yes, she got back four hours ago."

"Do you have any idea why she was kicked out?"

"No clue."

"Is Nico in the Underworld or at Camp?"

"At Camp, but Chiron sent him on an errand to grab some extra dish soap for the kids on kitchen duty. He should be back soon."

"Good, we will need his help. Also, he should be included because they want to kill him too."

"Okay, so what do we do from here?"

"Grab Thalia and meet me at the Empire State Building in an hour. Don't tell Chiron you're leaving, sneak out. Take my car because yours is still in the shop. The keys are in the Athena cabin on my desk. Iris message Nico when you get there, and tell him to meet us there. Tell him not to shadow travel, he can take his car."

"Stay safe, I don't know what I would do without you." He said sweetly.

"Me neither, Seaweed Brain," I said before disconnecting. My plan wasn't much, but I hoped it would work.

I heard that there was an elixir that enables you to be undetected by the gods. If we retrieved it, the gods wouldn't be able to locate us. The problem is I have no idea where the elixir is. Hopefully, Hades will help us and give us the location of it or something that will help us find it. Now, all I had to do was wait.

**This is my first fan fiction story that I haven't thought about deleting, so no flames please. CC is appreciated. I'm looking for one or two own characters, so you can PM me or send me a review if you would like me to use one; I'll send you the form. The characters might seem a little OCC, but it should get better as the story goes on. Review, please! I'd like to thank my bestie, LoveGreenEyes001, because she edited it this for me. You're awesome, Girly! :D**

**-Thaliarules0501 :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to all the people who reviewed my first chapter, I need at least one OC before I can start chapter five. I'm working on chapter three right now, but if you don't review no chapter three for you. I'm not trying to be demanding, I just want to see if writing this story is worth-while.**

**A special shout out goes to Bambi-Evans-Potter for being the first reviewer! I loved your review it made my day, and yes Percy and Annabeth are dating. As always a shout out goes to LoveGreenEyes001 for editing my story. Check out her stories, if you like PJO, HP, or PJO and HP crossovers. She's an awesome writer! **

**In this story, you will see a more loving and caring part of Nico, under his tough exterior. He may seem OC to some people, but I'm writing a different story with I different side of Nico so I wanted to make him different in this story. There are links to vehicles and outfits on my profile for this chapter. Sorry for the long authors note. Review! **

**Disclaimer: I own…nothing! It all belongs to Rick Riordan (that wonderful genius)-**

_Thalia's_ POV

Ugh, who would wake me up at this ungodly hour? I swear if it's Conner and Travis pulling another one of those stupid pranks, I will end their lives. I groaned as I rolled on to my side and screamed, "Go away!"

"Open up, Thalia! It's Percy."

"I don't care who it is, I'm not getting up!"

"Fine, I'll find my own way in." Suddenly, I heard the sound of breaking glass near the living area. Then I heard footsteps followed by shallow breathing. About five seconds later, I open my eyes and see the annoying Percy Jackson at the foot of my bed.

"What the hell did you do to my cabin?" I screamed.

"Well, you wouldn't let me in so I smashed my hand through the window above the door knob and unlocked it from the outside. By the way, how did you get Chiron to let you have a lock on your cabin door?"

"I have my ways." I said, smirking.

"Well I suppose that you want to know why I'm here."

"Yes, I do. What would be the reason to wake me up after after a long, hard, trip to camp?" I demanded.

"Well, the gods sort of want to kill us." He said, slowly.

"What? Why?"

"I'm really bad at explaining things, so Annabeth will explain to you when we meet her at the Empire State Building. Get dressed and meet me at your pine tree in a half an hour." He said as he walked out the door, closing it.

Well, that was hard to take in. I'm not surprised my dad would go along with killing us, but the other gods' decisions hurt me. I brushed it off and grabbed a fluffy white towel from the linen closet next to the bathroom. I jumped in the shower and let the warm water run down my skin, washing away my stresses and problems

After about ten minutes of bliss, I had to get out of the shower. I wrapped the towel around my body and felt the cold chill of the air conditioning as I opened the bathroom door. I sauntered over to my closet and decided on an outfit. I pulled out my faded and ripped red skinny jeans, a gray fitted button up shirt, and my combat boots. **(A/N: Links on my profile**.) I left the first two buttons of my shirt undone, with a black tank top underneath.

As I walked past my bed, I grabbed Aegis, my mace can, sunglasses, and my hunting knives. I towel dried my hair and penciled on some eyeliner. I've gotten a little lighter on the eyeliner over the years, so it's not too heavy. After that, I straightened my raven hair and off I went.

I strode over to my pine tree and sat down at the base to think. It was remarkable that I've been alive so long, years as a tree and three years with the hunters. I think I'm partially glad that I was kicked out of the hunters. I'm still the same age while everyone else around me slowly ages and moves forward. I felt like I was on a treadmill, running my heart out, but never getting anywhere. I wanted to start my life, get married, maybe even have a family, there are a million possibilities.

In the distance, I could see Percy ambling toward me with a jingling set of keys in his hand. Why would he have keys? Cars and electronic devices aren't allowed at camp.

"Hey, you're actually on time." He said, smiling.

"Yes, I know it's remarkable. Why do you have car keys?" I asked.

"Ever since the Titan War demigods fifteen and older are allowed to have one form of transportation here at camp." Percy explained.

"Cool, so you have a car?"

"Yes, but mine is in the shop, so we are taking Annabeth's."

"If her car is here, how did she get to Olympus?"

"I think she took a Pegasus."

"Okay let's go." I said, walking down the hill.

"Um, Thalia, the camp garage is this way." He said, pointing toward a new path right before the big hill.

"Right, I knew that."

"Of course you did." He said in a sarcastic manner.

The new path looked fairly fresh compared to the others. A few blade of grass poked through the dirt, and branches were still secluding the area. Everything looked so healthy and new, even the weeds seemed to thrive.

"Here we are." Percy said.

A large building with solitary concrete walls— almost like a one level parking garage—stood about 15 feet in front of me. I think it would hold around 30 vehicles.

"This is new." I observed.

"Yes, and all the senior campers like to flaunt it in front of the younger kids' faces, it's all really stupid." Percy explained.

"I have a dirt bike and you can't have one." He said in a high pitched voice as he wiggled his finger in front of my face like a two year old.

"Okay, so let me see this baby." I said, rubbing my hands together.

"I don't think you'll like this too much." He said, chuckling.

We strolled to the gloomy building and walked through the person's entrance. It was a lot bigger then it looked inside. I could see at least seven long rows of vehicles. When I say vehicles I mean things like cars, motorcycles, go carts, dirt bikes, golf carts, even an electric scooter took up a whole parking space.

"What poor excuse does a person have to park an electric scooter in a parking space?" I wondered.

"Mr. D tried to get them to move it, but they have nowhere to put it so it stays here." He explained.

I started pointing at cars I liked saying, "Is it that one?" or, "How 'bout this one?"

He just laughed and kept walking. Towards the end of the sixth row a pair of lights flashed, and I ran to see what car it was.

"You have to be kidding me."

"Nope that's her car; she claims to have no use for extra space." Percy said.

Annabeth's car was a little steel gray, 2011 Mazda Miata, with a convertible top and tan leather seats.**(A/N: link on my profile.) **I hate little cars, I get claustrophobic easily.

"Well, what arewe waiting for?" Percy asked, opening the driver's side door.

"I'm waiting for this car to magically change into something different."

"That's not going to happen, so get in."

I swung into the passenger seat, put on my sunglasses, and cranked the radio. Percy rolled down the convertible top with a push of a button. He reeved the engine, backed out of the space, and then gunned it through the exit.

"Why are you driving so fast?" I screamed. I couldn't hear with my hair flying around and wind whistling through my ears.

"Annabeth said to meet her there in an hour, that was fifty minutes ago."

"You know she hates it when people are late."

"You think I don't know that? I was five minutes late to her birthday party, and I got the silent treatment for the rest of the night!"

That's harsh, even for Annabeth."

Percy swerved in and out of lanes, passing people left and right. We were at the Empire State Building within eight minutes. As soon as we parked Percy wheeled out of the car, and ran over to the nearest water fountain. I could see he was Iris messaging someone, but I couldn't see who. I decided it wasn't important, so I took off my sunglasses and sat in the car and waited.

Percy started walking back towards the car around the same time Annabeth walked out of the Empire State building. The couple met up shared a chaste kiss, and held hands all the way to the car. Couples don't disgust me anymore; they are kind of cute—sometimes

"Hey, Thals," Annabeth said She walked twords me and greeted me with a hug.

"Long time, no see."

"I know, but it seems like _forever_ since the last time I saw you." She said with a small frown.

"If forever is 4 months, then yes it's been _forever._" I said elongating the R and rolling my eyes.

"You get what I mean. Did you tell Chiron that you got to camp?" She said. I took a step towards her, tripped on my shoelace, then toppled to the ground.

"No I didn't, why?" I asked from the ground.

"It will be easier to get you away from camp because Chiron thinks you're still with the hunters."

"Okay, good." I replied.

"You really should tie those shoelaces." Percy suggested.

"Can I have a hand?"

"What do you say?" Percy said

"Please." I muttered, flatly.

"What was that?" He said moving his ear toward me.

"_Please_, get me of the damn ground you idiot!" I screeched.

"Well, if you put it that way." He held out his hand and I pulled him to the ground with me. I stood up and brushed myself off, while laughing hysterically at Percy.

"Annabeth, this isn't funny!" Percy said angrily.

"I'm—sorry—you—should've—seen—that—coming." She said, laughing in between words

"Fine, then," He said, getting up and walking away from Annabeth.

"Percy, where are you going?"

"I'm plotting my revenge." He said glaring at me..

"Enough of that, why am I here? Explain to me what's going on." I said.

"You'll see." They said walking towards me.

Just then I heard the engine of a Harley Davidson, from about a mile away. The bike passed Annabeth's car and swerved into the parking spot in front of it. The motorcycle was a beautiful Harley Davidson, 2011 blackline. **(A/N: Link on profile.)**The driver swung his leg over the side of the motorcycle and looked toward us.

He had shaggy black hair that fell into the lenses of his reflective aviator sunglasses, and skin paler then mine. You could see his muscles through the thin black t-shirt he wore under a black leather jacket. This guy knew how to dress; he wore loose black skinny jeans, combat boots, and a skull ring with Ruby eyes. As he got closer to us, you could see he had a black stygian iron sword hanging at his side. **(A/N: Links on profile.)**

"Who's this hot guy walking toward us?" I whispered in Annabeth's ear.

At that very moment the guy held his arms out and said, "Annabeth."

"Hey Nico." She said, as she walked over to him.

Wait, Nico? Nico Di Angelo?

**Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay! New chappie, remember to reveeiiiww!**

**Disclaimer: If I were Mr. Riordan, I probably wouldn't be on this site.**

Thalia's POV

"Hey, Nico," Percy said.

"I'm sorry. Do you hear something?" Nico asked playfully to Annabeth. She just laughed.

"Real mature, Nico," Percy, said rolling his eyes.

"There it is again. Can someone please kill the thing making that awful noise?"

"Just come here."

"Oh, hey, Percy, didn't see you there." He said, going over to give him a manly hug.

"I was wondering why I couldn't just shadow travel here?" He asked Annabeth.

"We will be traveling to some places you haven't been, so you need a vehicle to get there."Annabeth clarified.

"Okay, but, Thals, we all know I'm good looking. Close your mouth. Flies can get caught in there. We wouldn't want that now would we?" Nico said, pushing my jaw close with his hand. His hands were rough and callused from all the battling he did. You could see small white scars dotted all over his arms and hands.

Then he took of his sunglasses and I could see his eyes. Looking into them was like looking into the deepest and darkest part of his soul. The warm brown color melted my insides, though; it didn't make shiver in the least.

"You just look so different." I choked out with a weak glare.

"A person changes over the years."

"Well, why did you interrupt me from my wonderful battle with my skeleton warriors?" He asked Percy.

When he said these sarcastic jokes, it looked like it almost pained him to smile. I wondered what was going on under that thick skull.

"Ask Annabeth. She's better at explaining things."

"I'll say the same thing to you guys that I said to Percy. The gods want to kill Percy, Nico, Thalia, and me. I heard them talking in the throne room today. Athena, Poseidon, and Hades stood up for all of us, but Zeus and the other gods wouldn't listen. Athena and Poseidon are trapped in cages because they refused to listen. Hades returned to the underworld to watch over the dead, but he swore he would help his son though." She said, explaining quickly.

"Damn, why do they want us dead?" I asked.

"They mentioned something about a prophecy and the overthrow of power, even though the prophecy didn't say we were the ones doing the over-throwing. They just want to kill us because we were mentioned."

"That's wonderful." Nico joked. You could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"What do we do from here?" I asked.

"Well, I heard there is an elixir that can keep you undetected from the gods— at least for a while. If we retrieve it, the gods won't be able to find us. This will stop them from killing us, for the time being."

"How are we supposed to find this elixir?" I questioned.

"I think Hades will be able to give us a clue about where to find it."

"Won't the gods be able to tell that he is giving us information?" Percy inquired

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." I explained.

"If we quickly went back to camp, and gathered our things undetected it could work." Annabeth said.

"Well, let's go then." Percy said moving towards the driver's side of the car.

"Oh, no, I drive." Annabeth commanded.

"Fine," Percy said, pouting as he walked around to the passenger's side.

"Um, am I supposed to go in the trunk?" I asked.

"You can ride with me; it's a two passenger motorcycle." Nice offered.

"How long have you had your license?" I inquired.

"What license?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "It looks like you're my only option, so I'll take your offer."

"Hop on."

The motorcycle didn't have a backrest, so I was forced to wrap my arms around Nico's muscular torso. This boy was built; I could feel the outline of a six pack through the thin fabric of his t-shirt. The engine shuddered as I put my chin on Nico's shoulder, he smelled of pine and leather.

"Hold on tight."

The engine shuddered as we shot forward into the New York traffic. It wasn't rush hour, but it was still as crowded as the fields of Asphodel. With Percy and Annabeth behind us we entered the Queens-Midtown tunnel. Barley any cars were in front of us so he picked up the speed. My hair whipped around behind me and the warm wind blew all over my face. With my body pressed up against his, I let out a laugh. In response, I could feel a low chuckle, but couldn't hear it over the roar of the engine.

Soon we were parked in the parking garage at Camp Half-Blood. I swung my leg over the side of the motorcycle, and Nico followed suit. Percy and Annabeth climbed out of the little convertible and turned toward us.

"You two looked like you were having fun." Percy said as I blushed.

"I saw you gawking at Annabeth through my rearview mirror almost the whole ride here." Nico retorted.

Annabeth blushed and said, "Everyone needs to gather their things, and meet back here within the hour. Try to go unnoticed, especially you, Thalia, not many people know you are here and we don't need more knowing. Nico's disappearance won't be unusual because he disappears from time to time. Percy and I will think of an excuse to tell Chiron."

"Okay, see you guys later." I said and walked towards the cabins.

To get to my cabin unnoticed I had to walk behind the Omega of cabins. I passed Connor and Travis, but they were too immersed in planning a prank to notice me. Quietly, I went through the back door to my cabin. It didn't look like it had been touched since I left, crumbs on the floor, clothes on the chair, and dishes in the sink. Being a child of Zeus, I got a small fully functional kitchen in my cabin.

I grabbed my black duffle bag and started filling it with necessary items. Two sets of spare clothes, my new iPod, mortal money, drachmas, toiletries, nectar, ambrosia, and an emergency inactivated cell-phone. If I needed anything else I could just buy what I needed as we went. I still didn't fully understand what our plan of action was for this little "outing".

_Go with the flow, Thalia. You don't always need to be in control,_ I thought to myself.

I grabbed my jacket and walked out the back door. Then I scampered through the cabins towards the parking garage when I was stopped by yell.

"Hey, Thalia!" A well-known voice screamed.

I slowly turned toward the voice and saw Clarisse La Rue standing behind me with her arms across her chest. I ran behind a tree and motioned for her to come here. She raised an eyebrow but walked towards me no less.

"What will it take to tell no one you saw me here?" I practically growled at her. She narrowed her eyes as if to say "Watch it."

"How long will you be gone?"

"I honestly don't know, why?"

"The longer I have to keep quiet the more you have to repay me." She said, smugly.

"Gods, Clarisse, I'll guess about two weeks give or take a few."

"When you get back you take all of my punishments for a month and thirty dollars." She said sticking her hand out.

"One week." I said, negotiating.

"Three weeks and three days." She retorted.

"Two weeks."

"Two weeks and four days."

"Fine," I huffed as I shook her hand; they were sweaty from the summer heat. I quickly withdrew my hand and dug through my backpack for my cash. I handed her twenty dollars.

"I said _thirty_."

"And I say_ twenty_." I said, smiling innocently.

"Fine," She muttered.

"Yes!" I yelled.

On that note I bounded away with a grin plastered across my face. I glanced at my watch and noticed an hour and five minutes had gone by since I left the garage. _Shit!_ I thought as I sprinted through the path I walked through that morning. When I reached the garage I ran toward the voices I knew to be my friends. I skidded through the corner and ran straight into Nico.

"Gods, what's your hurry?" Nico asked.

"I'm late, if you haven't noticed."

"I haven't, but Annabeth has." He whispered in my ear. His perfect lips ran across my ear as his warm breath tickled my ear and made me shiver. No Thalia, his lips aren't perfect. Well they are, but I can't think they are perfect. I cannot fall for Nico Di Angelo, he would never return my feelings.

From where I stood I could see Annabeth's hard glare set into her stormy, gray eyes.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Percy shouted gleefully, trying to break the growing tension. As I walked towards Annabeth, I heard her muttering something incoherent.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth, I got held up by Clarisse coming here and had to bargain with her to make her act like she never saw me."

Annabeth shrugged and said, "It's okay, I just don't like late people, it's a pet peeve."

Nico chuckled and asked, "What did you bribe her with?"

"Two and half weeks of serving her punishments and twenty dollars," I said, frowning.

Percy laughed and stuffed all of our bags into the trunk of the convertible.

"Watch it there are valuables in there!" Nico shouted.

"Like what?" Percy asked.

"Maybe your brain is in there. Wait, that's not valuable." He said taping his chin as if he was thinking.

Percy gritted his teeth and decided to ignore that comment. He got in the passenger side of the convertible and said, "Come on, Annabeth, Central Park isn't going to come to us."

Nico climbed onto the motorcycle, and started the engine. It growled to life as he revved the engine.

"We aren't getting any younger, Pinecone Face." Nico stated.

Before I lost my temper, I smiled and climbed on.

Within twenty minutes we were parked near Central Park. We met up with Percy and Annabeth and walked into Central Park.

"Lead the way, Ghost King." I said, ushering him forward.

We walked for fifteen minutes and it seemed like we were getting nowhere.

"Are we close?" Percy questioned.

"We should be right ne-"

He stopped in the middle of his sentence gasped, grabbed his mid-section and doubled over towards the grass. He was coughing and gasping for air as if some invisible force was choking him.

"_Nico!"_ I screeched and ran toward him.

**I'm evil aren't I, don't hate me too much. Insert maniacal smile here. Thank you to all my readers, and reviewers, and my wonderful editor. Review, the more reviews I get the less time it will take for me to update. ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you, to all who reviewed. **

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan continues not to accept my continuing requests to please, please let me possess his soul and write pointless fan fiction stories. So for now, I own nothing. Continue on with your reading young souls.**

_Percy's POV _

As Nico fell to the ground; Thalia rushed to his side and fell to the ground beside him. Annabeth ran over to him too. I was to shocked to lift my feet at the moment, but I'm sure If I could I would've rushed over there also.

Suddenly, Nico's eyes shot open. Thalia screeched and crawled backwards with a small tear running down her cheek.

"Oh, my gods." Annabeth whispered.

"I'm not Nico, so don't be too shocked." A voice said that was obviously not Nico's, but still came from his body.

"Who are you?" Thalia yelled, warily. She had gotten off of the ground and was now standing next to Annabeth, who was currently clinging to me like I was her last strand of life.

"Fear not children. I am Hades Nico's father, your uncle." He said pointedly looking at Thalia and me.

Annabeth's grip on me loosened a little. Thalia was now hastily wiping away the one stray tear on her cheek.

"Why did you posses your son's body like some puppet master?" I questioned.

"This is the only way the gods cannot tell that I am giving you information. I must hurry or Nico's soul will stay out of his body forever."

"We wouldn't want that." Thalia said quickly. "Tell us where to find the elixir."

"Ah, the elixir is currently it is in Nike's possession."

"Nike, as in the goddess of victory?" I asked.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "No seaweed brain, he means the shoe company. Of course he means Nike- the goddess of victory!" She said to me as if I was the dumbest person in the world.

"Why would she have it?" Thalia questioned.

"Zeus currently has a reward for your capture. If a minor god captures you they get to become an Olympian. Nike has always wanted to become an Olympian, so she really wants to capture you. She thinks the elixir will lure you to her, I assume she was correct." Nico-I mean Hades said.

"Where is Nike?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh Tartarus, Nico's soul is leaving his body; I must leave his. Remember the games!" He said slowly fading away and his eyes shutting.

Then, Nico's eyes shot open and he inhaled a giant breath of air, like he was drowning.

Nico's POV

I groaned and lifted my head off the ground. I felt like I got hit like a truck. One minute I'm walking to the entrance of the underworld, the next I'm in total darkness. I sat up for a second, only to be toppled over again by a certain daughter of Zeus. My head connects with the ground again as my back slams into the dirt. I look up to find Thalia smiling over me with a tear marks running from her beautiful blue eyes to her chin.

"Oh my gods you're alive!" She shouted with joy.

From behind Thalia's curtain of soft raven hair, I saw Percy and Annabeth ambling towards us. Only then did I notice that Thalia was basically straddling me after her failed attempt at a hug. I coughed and a look of shock passed over her face for a split second then it was gone. She hastily climbed off of me and sat beside me in the dirt.

"What just happened?" I asked sitting up.

"Your father just possessed your body Nico." Annabeth said.

"What, Why would he do that? " I questioned.

"He said it was the only way he could give us information without the gods knowing."

"What did we learn from my horrible experience?" I asked jokingly.  
>"Nike has the elixir, and your father said, 'to remember that games'—whatever that means." Percy said, confused.<p>

"What games?" I asked.  
>"That's what we're trying to figure out." Thalia said.<p>

I could see the gears turning in Annabeth's head, and then her eyes lit up like a light bulb.

"I know that look." Thalia said accusingly, "What are you thinking?"

"Do you think Hades could've possibly meant Olympic Games?" Annabeth wondered.

"My girlfriend is a genius!" Percy shouted.

"Yes Percy, we've established that already." Thalia said sarcastically.

I love it when she says things sarcastically; she's so cute when she does that. Wait—did I just call her cute? No, no, no, no, no I cannot possibly even the smallest tiny bit like Thalia Grace. On the other hand what's wrong with it? She's funny, beautiful, caring, smart, powerful, strong-in many ways, and feisty. If she finds out she'll dig my grave and bury me alive. Oh, shut up Nico focus on the task at hand.

"No I'm serious! Nike is the goddess of victory, what could be more victorious then winning the Olympic Games? That's where her spirit is the strongest, so I think she follows the Olympic Games." Percy said

"Well where are the Olympic games now?" I asked curiously.

"I'm not sure, I don't like not knowing things so we need to find somewhere with Wi-Fi access. I can look it up on my laptop." Annabeth said.

"They have Wi-Fi access at Starbucks around the corner." Percy remembered.

"We need to get out of the city first; we're too close to Olympus." Annabeth explained.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Thalia asked.

"Can someone please get me some nectar or ambrosia?" I asked. I groaned as I sat up with my hand on the back of my head.

"I got it!" Thalia shouted, already jogging to the car.

"So Nico, what's going on with you and Thalia?" Annabeth asked teasingly.

I blushed looked down and muttered disappointedly, "Absolutely nothing."

"I think there's something, when you collapsed Thalia was crying a little. Thalia Grace doesn't cry." Percy said winking.

"She was crying?" I whispered caringly. That's why there was tear marks on her face.

"I'm back with the food of the gods, it's a little crushed but it will do." Thalia said handing me a mushed up bag of ambrosia.

"Thanks." I said taking out a square. I took a bite and it tasted like the pastries my mom used to make before she died. Yes, I know I still remember what they tasted like. They were the best thing in the world. I smiled with pleasure as I finished off the small square.

With renewed strength, I climbed off the ground and walked over to the group.

"So how do you feel?" Annabeth asked cautiously.

"I still feel like I got ran over by a truck, but a much smaller truck then before." I said seriously.

"Let's go find that Wi-Fi hot spot." Thalia said walking over to my motorcycle.

"Wait up!" I said jogging to catch up with her. I waved over my shoulder to Percy and Annabeth, who were already walking towards their convertible. Thalia just looked over her shoulder and slowed down a notch.

"So, you cried when I feel to the ground?" I whispered curiously. I swear I saw a little bit of blush spread over her cheeks as she looked down at the pavement.

"I just couldn't lose another person I-" I couldn't hear the last word, but It didn't matter.

I stopped her, held her by her shoulders, tilted her chin up towards me, "Look at me, I'm not going anywhere." I whispered looking into her eyes.

"That's good to know." She whispered. Then she did something I never would've expected, she wrapped her arms around me and enveloped me in a hug. My body and hers fit together like a puzzle piece.

She was shorter than me so my nose was buried in her soft black hair. I breathed through my nose and smelled the most intoxicating scent, warm vanilla. I know, you never would've thought a son of Hades could be such a softie. This is what she does to me though, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

She let go too soon and yelled, "Race you to the motorcycle!" Then she took off running.

"Not fair! You got a head start!" I shouted before taking off behind her.

We both got to the motorcycle at the same time, despite the fact that she got a head start. Getting to the motorcycle involved a lot of jumping over hot dog carts, dodging old ladies crossing the street, and nearly missing getting hit by a cab.

"I win, I win, I win!" I yelled while doing a happy dance.

"It was a tie!" Thalia screeched. She had a flushed face and wind whipped hair, yet she still managed to look beautiful.

"Considering the fact that you got a head start and you still didn't win, that means I win by ten seconds." I said smiling triumphantly.

She gave no protest, but instead ushered me onto my bike. I climbed on and waited for her to get on also.

"What are you waiting for?"

"If you plan for me to keep riding on this thing, you need to buy helmets." She said smugly.

Helmets are not bad ass! I cannot work that look, plus it messes up my sexy hair. I'm not gay, but a little bit conceded about my perfect body. Just kidding, but a helmet does mess up my entire image. I thought about it for a minute and came up with a solution.

"My car is being shipped to Camp for the summer as we speak. If I call I can stop it where ever it is, and pick it up."

"You have a car and a motorcycle?" She said incredulously.

"The car was a gift from Hades, the motorcycle I bought myself."

"Okay fine. I'm acting like such a softie, this isn't like my usual self. Ever since I got kicked out of the hunters I lost some of my pride and confidence."

"That's understandable, I kind of like the softer Thals, she's easier to get along with."

She smiled and climbed on the motorcycle and we followed Percy and Annabeth out of the city, through the Holland Tunnel, and into New Jersey. We drove thirty minutes, and I could feel Thalia's head lay across my back. Somehow we ended up in front of Percy and Annabeth, after another twenty minutes we entered a town named Cranford, New Jersey. As soon as we passed the city limits we saw a tiny diner, on the sign it said "Buy one steak dinner get one free!" and "Free Wi-Fi access."

I turned on my turn signal to tell Percy and Annabeth we were stopping here. There weren't many cars in the parking lot so I managed to get a front spot. Percy pulled the car up next to us and smirked. I turned off the engine and waited to feel Thalia's arms to unwrap themselves from around me, but they stayed glued to me.

I shot Annabeth a what-is-going-on look. She shrugged pulled out her camera and snapped a picture. She showed it to me and I saw Thalia with a peaceful smile on her face and her head pressed against my back. I was glancing away from the camera and blushing with a small smile on my face.

Thalia was asleep, that's why she wouldn't unwind herself from me. I slowly unhooked her arms from my waist and wrapped them around my neck. I carried her bridal-style into the diner and asked for a table for four. Percy and Annabeth trailed behind me awkwardly as they showed us our booth. Thalia grinned wider whenever I spoke, I wonder what that meant. Annabeth slid into the booth and I sat Thalia down next to her.

I knelt down to her sitting height and whispered, "Wake up, Thals."

She moaned and fell onto my shoulder, then whispered something incoherent. I blushed then put her back into the sitting position. She fell onto Annbeth's shoulder, and then Annbeth jerked and rolled her shoulder. Thalia's eyes shot open and hastily sat up straight, smoothed down her hair, then squinted her eyes.

"Where am I?" She wondered aloud.

"We are in a diner in Cranford, New Jersey, about 50 minutes away from Central Park since there wasn't bad traffic." I explained as I slid into the booth beside Percy

"That's not the whole sto-"Percy was then interrupted my elbow burring itself into his stomach.

"He's right that isn't the whole story. You fell asleep with your arms around Nico and you wouldn't let go, so he carried you in here bridal style sat you down at a booth still asleep. He attempted to wake you up, but you moaned and muttered something and was then woken up by me. Now here we are." Annabeth explained while I was glaring daggers at her.

Thalia blushed then said, "I'm hungry, let's get some food while we do research. What does it take to get a waiter around here?"

Just then a girl in her late teens or early twenties came over and asked what we wanted to drink. As she asked me she lowered her arms on the table in attempt to show off cleavage. I shot her a weird look then said I wanted a coke like everyone else.

"What was all that about?" Percy asked.

Thalia was steaming in her seat with gritted teeth and looking like she wanted to stab the girl in the heart.

"That girl was all over Nico." Annabeth said, winking.

"Okay, ew, she's old and looks like a worn down mule." I said with a disgusted look on my face.

That brought a grin to Thalia's face while Percy and Annabeth snickered. The waitress came back with our cokes and asked us what we wanted to eat. Percy ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with fries, I ordered a bacon burger medium-rare, Annabeth ordered a hamburger medium-well, and Thalia ordered salmon.

As soon as Thalia mentioned salmon she was met with a death glare from Percy and decided to change her order to a chicken panini.

When the waitress left Percy gave Thalia a glare and said, "You could've been eating one of the salmon friends I talk to when I'm bored."

"Why don't you make out with Annabeth some more, that's all I see you doing in your free time." I said. Percy and Annabeth blushed a deep scarlet red, as Thalia snickered next to Annabeth.

"At least I'm not constantly body locking with a guy who isn't my boyfriend while stifling a moan." Annabeth said angrily to Thalia. Thalia shot Annabeth a death glare worthy of a child of Hades, then stomped outside the diner.

I moved to get up but Annabeth stopped me and said she would handle it. I put my head in my hands and looked over at Percy who just shrugged.

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	5. Chapter 5

**For my story, pretend the location of 2002 Olympics is the Olympics going on. I didn't want them to go to London. That would be hard to write. By the way, the story takes place in July 2012 just for the Olympics to work into this. I implied that Thalia was kicked out of the hunters because the gods want to kill her, Artemis is a god who wants to kill her. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

Nico's POV

I hope Thalia's okay. I think she over reacted a little though. I guess she was hurt because of all people that could say that it was Annabeth, one of her few best friends.

"What the Hades is body-locking?" I asked Percy, I had never heard of it in my entire life.

"It's a wrestling move, I've seen it on RAW." Percy explained.

"What? I've never seen Thalia wrestle."'

"That's because she's not really wrestling, you don't need to know."

"Oh, why was she so hurt by what Annabeth said?" I asked.

"I think it's the way she said it, and what her intentions of the comment were." Percy said.

"Wow, I never thought you could be so smart Percy."

"I have my moments, Nico."

He said. Just then, the girls entered the diner with unreadable expressions, and slid into the booth.

"So, are you okay?" I asked Thalia.

"Mhm," She muttered nodding her head. I looked at her with a confused expression, but left her alone none the less.

The waitress then came and set down our food. She gave my bacon burger to Annabeth, Percy's chicken to Thalia, Thalia's Panini to Percy, and Annabeth's hamburger to me.

Not knowing any better, I took a bite of the hamburger. Annabeth assumed mine was hers also. The burger was dryer then the Sahara Desert.

"How do you eat this? I've seen souls in the fields of punishment who looked better than this tasted!" I said awed.

"How do you eat this? The blood is still warm from when it was killed!" Annabeth said spitting out the bloody meat.

"I'm sorry, I like to look at things that looked like they were once alive, and I've seen enough dead things."

"Touché," She said sliding my burger to me, and vice versa.

"I don't want his food either." Thalia said pushing away Percy's chicken.

They then traded as I hungrily bit into my hamburger. I could feel the warm juice running down my chin. I devoured one half before I noticed them staring at me. Annabeth had stopped mid bite, to watch me eat.

"What, a guy's gotta eat." I said looking around. They all shrugged and went back to their meals.

When we were finished Annabeth pulled out her laptop and searched the 2012 Olympics. The venue was Salt Lake City, Utah, and the date of the opening ceremony was July 27th, five days from now. We Googled directions to Salt Lake City from Cranford, and if we drove straight through with no traffic, it would take one day and eleven hours.

"I seriously do not plan on driving all the way through the country without stopping for the night, I'll get car sick and not sleep at all. I wouldn't have enough energy to fight if we were attacked, it's not safe." Annabeth said.

"Yeah, neither do I." I said. Percy and Thalia muttered in agreement.

"Since we are going to be driving across the country, I think I'll stop my car and pick it up in the morning. I'll ship my motorcycle to Camp instead of my car. Annabeth can I use your laptop?" She nodded and slid it over to me.

My car was currently at a stop in Westfield, NJ, just my luck. The stop was only around fifteen minutes from where we were now. I called and asked them to stop the shipment of my car and take my motorcycle instead. The truck was leaving at nine o'clock tomorrow morning and I needed to make the exchange by eight forty-five.

"It's late, I say we find a decent hotel and park it for the night." I said.

"I agree." Percy said. We all split the bill and left two dollars for the waitress, she was pretty bad anyway.

Thalia and I climbed on the motorcycle, but before I left I needed to talk to her.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine."

"I've lived with two women long enough to know, 'I'm fine.' means you're not." I said putting finger quotation marks in the air.

"I'm fine also means I don't want to talk about it or buzz off." She said tilting her head.

"We will talk about this, but I don't want to lose Percy and Annabeth they just left." I said starting the engine.

I gunned it out of the parking lot to catch up with Percy and Annabeth. We drove through some hollow land for around ten minutes, and then Percy and Annabeth signaled that we were turning.I could see the sign for the rundown motel from the motorcycle. It read "Lucky Motel, Air conditioning, T.V, and Vacancy." The sign was rusted, barely lit up, and scratched.

We pulled in next to Percy and Annabeth and looked at them crookedly. They motioned for me to turn off the engine, I cooperated.

"There wasn't going to be another motel for another hour, it might even be worse than this one." Annabeth explained.

"Great, now we get to rough it with the barn rats. No, I take that back, I think barn rats live in better places than this motel." I said as I scowled.

"Ha, Ha, now go get us cheeked in while we unload the bags." Annabeth said, pointing to the building unconnected to the rest of the motel. There was a sign with an arrow saying, "Front desk."

"Great." I said sarcastically.

I sauntered over to the front desk, and opened the rusted metal door. I walked up to the desk and rang the bell that said "ring for service." It rang out in the eerie, church-like silence. I started to think there was no one in, when a snake sprang out from behind the counter, opened up its jaws and launched itself straight towards my head. I leaped out of the way just in time

.This wasn't just a snake; it had the body of a python, but with chicken feet. Did I mention it had a head on either side? If I didn't then yes, it had two heads of equal size attached to each end of the body.

Four eyes that gleamed like candle light turned towards me. The fangs were dripping with bright yellow venom. The snake launched itself at me again, but I drew my sword and it came into contact with my stygian iron blade instead of my arm. Venom spewed out of its fangs just as it was sliced to pieces. The skin of my hand was burning with pain as the snake crumbled to yellow dust, only leaving behind skin. Just then the door opened behind me. I scrambled to pick up the skin and shove it in my pocket.

An old man with ragged clothes, a gray knotted beard, and a cloudy right eye shuffled behind the desk.

"Can I help you?" He rasped.

"Yes, I would like to book a room for one night, with three beds." I said, hopefully, while gritting my teeth in pain. I knew Percy and Annabeth would want to sleep in the same bed so one for them, one for me, and one for Thalia.

"I don't have three beds, but I do have two queens and a sofa bed." He said as if it were a question.

"I'll take it.

"He handed me a old bronze key and whispered, "Room 13, pay at checkout"

"Thank you." I said, practically running out the door.I sprinted over to the car where they were waiting.

"Oh, my gods, my hand hurts so much." I said to them.

Their eyes got wide quickly and snatched my hand.

"Careful." I hissed.

"What happened?" Annabeth questioned while examining my hand.

"There was this two-headed snake thing that was in the office."

She knitted her eyebrows then snatched the room key of my other hand. Dragging me to the room, she turned the deadbolt open and shoved open the door.

I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings much due to the pain in my right hand.

"You have to be kidding me." I heard Percy say as Annabeth ran my hand under water.

I hissed as it turned cold. I looked down to access the damage. Patches of my hand looked like they had an extreme case of frost bite. There was black, flakey skin covering my flesh.

"I'm going to have to cut off the burnt flesh; some of the nerves are still alive so it will hurt." Annabeth explained pulling out her dagger.

"A lot," Thalia added.

"Percy, can you find the first aid kit for me?" Annabeth asked urgently while sterilizing her dagger.

"I got it!" He shouted while rifling through Annabeth's duffle bag.

"Thalia, hold Nico's hand for support. If I had morphine I would give it to you." Annabeth said.

Thalia grabbed my other hand, I'm sure I would've blushed if I wasn't so focused on what Annabeth was about to do.

"It's so bad people use morphine for it?" I shouted. Percy handed Annabeth the first aid kit and she took out gauze pads, gauze, antibiotic cream, and hydrogen peroxide.

Annabeth took her dagger and started cutting off the dead skin.

"Hey, this isn't so b—AGH!" I shouted squeezing her hand in pain. It felt like someone ran a burning hot knife across my hand.

"See, I hit a nerve." Annabeth said as she continued.I gritted my teeth as she cut off the rest of the skin. When she was done she poured hydrogen peroxide all over the raw skin. It burned like Hades as it fizzed. She put antibiotic cream on the gauze pad, and then wrapped starch white gauze around my hand.

"There, all better." Annabeth said cleaning up the mess.

"You did awesome; I would've been kicking my legs and screaming." Thalia said. She kissed me on the cheek then trotted out of the bathroom.

I blushed a tomato red and ran my good hand across my cheek. Before I walked outside I got my facial color under control. I bounded across the room and belly flopped onto the bed closest to the window.

"I call this bed!" I shouted. I finalized it by throwing my bag onto the matters.

"Ugh, this means I get the sofa bed." Thalia said glaring.

"There's another bed." I said, pointing to the bed next to mine.

"I'm sure the lovely couple will want that one." She said disquietedly.

"True."

"I call the shower first!" Thalia said, grabbing her towel and pajamas."Be my guest." I said, ushering her towards the bathroom."

"I think the two-headed snake you battled with in the office was the Amphisbaena." Annabeth said.

"What's the Amphisa? Whatever—you know what I mean." I said messing up the pronunciation.

"It's the two-headed snake that came from the blood of Medusa's head."

"Oh, that's interesting. The snake left behind a skin when I killed it." I said pulling the skin out of my pocket.

"Myths say that skin can cure illnesses, like the common cold. It could be useful, keep it."

Around three minutes later, Thalia scrambled out of the bathroom in only a towel.

As I was shoving my face in my pillow in an attempt to hide my blush, Annabeth asked, "Gods Thal, what's the matter?"

"The water smells like metal." She said.

"Gods, don't take a shower or drink tap water. You could get infected" Annabeth said.

"What about my hand? You ran it under tap water." I said.

"I cut off a lot of the skin, and disinfected it, you should be fine." Annabeth said.

"Awesome, we can't even brush our teeth." Thalia said, scowling.

"Or can we?" Percy said, mysteriously. He pulled out a bowl and bottled water.

"Like this." Percy squeezed toothpaste onto the tooth brush, poured bottled water onto it, brushed his teeth, and then spit into the bowl.

"Good idea." Then we all followed suit and brushed our teeth. We all changed into pajamas and climbed into our respected beds.

"Good night guys." I said. I got a chorus of good nights in response.

About an hour later, I still wasn't asleep. I heard the squeak of rusted metal, and sat up to see Thalia grumbling while tossing and turning on the sofa bed.

"Can't sleep?" I whispered.

"Mhm,"

"Me either, there's always room over here." I said. I could hear her light padding footsteps as she made her way over to me.

She crawled in next to me, with her back facing me. She inched closer to get more blankets. I covered her up to her shoulders.

Within fifteen minutes I could hear her light even breathing, signaling she was asleep.

"Night Thals," I whispered kissing the top of her head and lightly wrapping my arm around her waist.

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	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! This chapter might not be one of my best, so bear with me. The description is kind of weirdish? I hope you like it anyways. Thank gods fan fiction is back up. I'm sick and feel like crap, so some of this chapter is horrible. I update for you anyways!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this chapter that anyone already owns.**

_Thalia's POV_

I woke up wondering where the Hades I was. I quickly figured it out.

Currently my back was pressed up against Nico, with his arm snaked around my waist. I'm not going to lie I liked it, maybe a little too much.

I tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but as a response his arm tightened around me even more. I managed to flip myself over without disturbing the sleeping giant. He was so cute when he slept; a little drool running down his chin, sexy messed up hair, and a content smile on his face.

I attempted again to free myself again, but he groaned and scowled in his sleep.

"Nico, you need to wake up." I whispered.

"Why am I dreaming that the beautiful Thalia Grace is waking me up?" He murmured.

"It's not a dream."

"Oh really, then how could I do this in real life?" He asked.

Then he did the most surprising thing that was in my dreams, and my nightmares. He kissed me.

His breath surprisingly didn't taste or smell like mornings breathe. My eyes were wide open in shock. I couldn't jump back or kiss him back, I was frozen still. His lips were warm and soothing, but they were still cool enough to make me shiver.

"See, definitely a dream." He said moving back, smiling with pleasure, and lying back down. I think he really believed it was a dream because his eyes were closed the whole time.

I sprang out of the bed and took a step backward.

"What the fuck was that Di Angelo?" I said angrily. I felt taken advantage of; I had my first real kiss while the guy I love was asleep!

He sat up, rubbed his eyes and said, "What did I do? I was having a wonderful dream, and I don't appreciate being waken up from it."

"What were you dreaming about, huh?" I asked angrily. He blushed and turned away.

"Well, it wasn't a dream."

A confused look spread across his face, then a look of pure shock.

"What? That was real?" He said with pure astonishment.

"Yes, and I don't appreciate being taken advantage of. You probably were thinking of some blonde bitch." I said fighting back tears. I don't cry, Thalia Grace doesn't cry.

_Nico's POV_

Oh my gods, what just happened I thought it all was a dream. Pure fantasy, I would never be able to do that in real life.

"Yes, and I don't appreciate being taken advantage of. You probably were thinking of some blonde bitch." She said.

I felt anger rising up and boiling inside of me. She thought I was dreaming of someone else? That is the last thing I would do.

"Thalia, maybe this is why people always abandon you. You always push them away and assume the worst, first your mom, then Luke, and now me. Guess what, I refused to be pushed away Thalia!" I said angrily. Only after the words came out of my mouth like vomit did I realize what I had said.

She turned around and looked at me with tears pouring down her cheeks, and a look of pure hatred painted across her face. "I hate you, and always will." She said with deathly calm and steadiness in her words, and then she flung the door open and stormed out.

That hit me like a blow to the face. Only then did I realize that Percy and Annabeth saw the whole thing. At the moment I didn't care. I ran out behind her, with just my pajama bottoms on. That's right, I sleep shirtless. Rock what you got. My ADHD is acting up again, focus Nico!

I saw her sitting against a tall oak tree not far from the hotel. Her knees were up to her face, covering it. I ran over there, slid across the dirt, and crouched down to her level.

"Thals, I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said I was angry, and I'm known for a bad temper among a bunch of other things."

She chuckled a stuffy laugh and wiped her face.

"Your right I do drive people away, I'm horrible." She said sobbing and falling unto my chest.

I took her face in my hands and made her look into my eyes. Boring brown meets beautiful blue.

"You're not horrible; you're the most wonderful person in the planet. You're caring, smart, funny, strong, powerful, selfless, compassionate, and those are just the beginning of your wonderful attributes, that's why I love you." I said spilling out everything that was in my head. I thought she would reject me and say that I was disgusting or something that would make me live in Hades till I die, but she did just the opposite. Another kiss! Gods, was this a good day.

_Thalia's POV_

We were lost in each other's arms, eyes closed, our lips locked together in harmony. His lips were like nothing I've never felt before. Much different from when he was asleep. His kiss so passionate, so warm. The only thought that ran through my head was those three little words that mean so much... I love you.

The world faded slowly into the back round as he moaned and locked his hands around my waist. I knotted my hands in his hair- it reminded me of my favorite teddy bear, warm and comforting.

I fiddled with his hair as he bit my bottom lip asking for entrance. I gasped without meaning to which allowed his tongue to snake its way into my mouth. My back was still pressed up against the tree, which didn't even feel like it was there. I was floating, pure bliss.

Someone coughed and we hastily broke apart.

"I'd appreciate if you stopped making out in front of my hotel at eight o'clock in the morning." Rasped an old man with a knotted beard, "Check out is at ten." He said walking away.

"Well that was embarrassing." I said as I flushed.

"Yes, kind of mortifying actually." Nico said as he stood up.

I looked up and realized he had no shirt on. He had rippling cords of muscle across his arms and perfectly toned abs. His skin was as flawless as a diamond. What did I do to deserve that? That's right; I only saved the world a few times.

"So what does this make us?" I asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"I would be honored if the beautiful ex-hunter, Thalia Grace would be my girlfriend." He said slyly.

"As would I be honored if the sexy ghost king, Nico Di Angelo would be my boyfriend." I said flushing.

"I need to get dressed; I have to leave to pick up my car in fifteen minutes."

"Need some help with that?" I asked winking playfully. He blushed and started walking away.

"Wait up!" I shouted. I jogged up to him and caught his hand in mine.

"It's not fair that you get to tease me." He said playfully glaring.

"Who said life was fair?"

"Touché."

I quickly threw on an avenged sevenfold t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and a bomber jacket. I could feel Thalia's eyes on my back. I smirked and turned around.

"Just can't keep my eyes off me can you?" I said playfully catching her off guard.

"Nope, I'm not going to lie." She said winking and sauntering into the bathroom.

Damn, she plays me so well. I noticed Percy and Annabeth's bed was made and they were nowhere in sight.

I figured they found somewhere suitable for them to jump each other. I grabbed my keys and screamed to Thalia that I was leaving, she didn't answer but I assumed she heard me. Slamming the door behind me, I jumped on my motorcycle and drove towards my baby.

Within ten minutes I found the truck stop and pulled in. The truck driver climbed out of his truck and took his sweet time walking towards me.

"Move it kid, I need to make it to Chicago by tomorrow."

"Maybe if you moved a little when you walked, you'd get there faster." I said smirking.

He gave me the finger, and then unhooked my car. My car was a black, 2012, IPL G coupe. **(A/N-link on** **profile.)**

"Thanks buddy boy." I said slapping him on the shoulder.

I watched him hook up my motorcycle before climbing into my wonderful car. I felt the cool, black leather through my jeans as I sat down. It purred to life with no more than a shudder.

I felt so good to floor it down the empty stretch of road. I put my head back and laughed with joy as I rolled down the windows. Everything was going right for once. I wonder how long that will last.

**I just couldn't keep them away from each other any longer! Is it too soon? I know you guys like the fact that they are in denial, I just couldn't wait for this. **

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	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, long time no write. Sorry I haven't updated sooner, I've had writers block and I've been sick. I truly wish I had some nectar or ambrosia. I had no way to contact my editor, so the grammar in this chapter is bad. Parents forgot to pay the phone bill… again.**

**So one case of writers block, one upper respitoriy infection, and two Paramore CDs later, I give you chapter 7.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, absolutely nothing… yet.**

_Thalia's POV_

I stood in the shower completely done with shampooing my hair, and everything else a normal person does in the shower. I didn't really care that the water had metal in it, I just couldn't drink it. I just stood there letting the warm water run over my body as I thought deeply.

I wondered if I shouldn't have let Nico see what I was thinking or feeling. At the moment I was stopping myself from regretting everything. After all I just left the hunters and I was already physically and emotionally binding myself to him in ways I didn't believe were possible.

The other half of me was happy and giddy with excitement. Nico helped me forget about my past, like Luke and my mother. He made me feel like I never had before, and I didn't want to lose that.

With Luke I think I loved him like a brother, and my feelings for him developed only slightly over time. As soon as I saw Nico I felt like I was drowning in my emotions, I sound totally cliché right now, but he does that to me. Something no one has ever done before.

His low laugh burrowed its way into the center of my soul. If I ever lost that, I think I'd die a little. The way his perfect hair almost rests on his dark eyelashes makes my heart do a relay race. I don't think I fully trust him yet, but I'm well on my way.

Getting my thoughts put together I climbed out of the shower and slid on my destroyed white skinny jeans, black and white converse, and a black and white striped shirt with lightning running down the side and a zipper in the back. **(A/N: Link for shirt on my profile.)**

As soon as I put my showering things back into my duffle bag a very flustered Annabeth Chase burst through the hotel room door.

"We need to buy swimsuits." She said urgently while breathing heavy.

"Whoa there, calm down. Why do we need swim suits at eight o'clock in the morning?" I said soothingly.

"I'll explain later, get in my car and I'll go tell Percy where we are going." Then she zoomed off. I swear I could see smoke trailing behind her.

_Okay then_, I thought suspiciously. I grabbed my wallet and my black and gray varsity jacket. **(A/N: Link on profile.)**

I sat in Annabeth's car patiently waiting for the gray eyed daughter of Athena. If leaning on the horn while picking at your nails is patiently. Hey, I'm not a patient person, if I don't rush her she'll end up making out with Percy again. Or worse, molesting him.

I can't have my little Annie knocked up now can I? Dear gods, I hope she's on birth control. Okay, enough nasty thoughts for me.

A red faced Annabeth then came barreling out the door screaming something that I couldn't hear over the horn.

I pointed at my ear and mouthed "I can't hear you!"

She angrily walked over and smacked me on the back of the head until I got off the horn. Some old man in a robe walked out of his room and started screaming some gibberish. I flipped him the bird and snatched the keys from Annabeth's hand and motioned for her to get in the passenger seat.

"Do you even have a license?" She questioned as I started the car and turned up the radio.

"I got one while I was with the hunters, I don't drive much though." I explained, "Where to?"

"The nearest mall is around ten minutes from here in Westfield."

"Great, I'll get us there in eight." I said speeding up now breaking the speed limit by a good measure. I hoped there weren't many cops around.

There was only one other car I could see on the road. It was heading towards us, but it was still a good distance away. Soon we became closer and I could see it was a black infiniti with tinted windows, but they were all rolled down.

As I became even closer I could see a familiar pair of sunglasses through the windshield. I stuck my hand out and motioned for the car to stop.

The car rolled to a stop next to ours and the driver popped its head out the window. I could see his familiar shaggy black hair brushing the top of his sunglasses.

He pulled them off, smiled and said, "What's up Thals? Hey there Annie."

She scowling and grumbled, "Don't call me Annie."

I snickered and said, "Apparently there is an urgent need for Annabeth and me to buy swimsuits so we are going to the Westfield mall to find some."

"And you didn't even bother to ask you boyfriend?" He asked feigning hurt.

"What the hell, boyfriend?" Annabeth asked.

I cringed and said, "You've really done it this time Nico Di Angelo."

"Whoops, I gotta go. See you later Thals." He said before sliding his sunglasses back on and speeding away.

I slowly turned to Annabeth to find the blonde sitting there grinning at me like a fool.

"You guys are a couple? When did that happen? Yay now Percy and I won't feel awkward displaying affection around you too loners." She rambled.

"Yes, just a half hour ago, and really? You could've acted all like a couple, but I would've given you a hard time about it, as I still will now." I said gaining speed once again.

"I know you will, but know I can give you a hard time about it too." She said smirking like a con artist.

I grimaced and said, "You never told me why we needed swimsuits."

"Percy and I decided we need to have at least a little fun on this trip. Monsters seem to be pre occupied since we've only been attacked once, so we are allowed to have some fun."

"Admit it, you also want to ogle Percy in a swimsuit." I said smirking.

"Oh please, and you like you aren't looking forward to Nico in a swimsuit." Annabeth retorted.

It honestly hadn't come to my mind that he would be in a swimsuit; he didn't seem like the swimming type.

"Hey Annabeth, does Nico even swim?" I inquired.

"Yes surprisingly, I know you don't like to swim, but you are at least tanning or something. I've gotten used to the water, and you should to."

"Ya okay." I said rolling my eyes.

I pulled into the parking lot for the mall; it was surprisingly crowded for eight thirty on a Saturday. I guess people in this town were early risers.

Annabeth finally spotted an open parking spot towards the entrance. I pulled in and swung open the door.

Annabeth and I strutted through the door and I caught her arm before she could make a bee line to American Eagle.

"We are going to find a store we both can like." I told her.

"How did you know where I was going?"

"Please, I've known you since you were seven, I know what clothes you like."

She pondered this for a moment before saying, "Ya, I guess you do."

We strolled through the mall strategically avoiding the large mobs of teens everywhere. We came across Zumiez and Annabeth stopped.

"This store has clothes for both of us." She said.

I agreed and we strolled in. After flicking through a few racks I had settled on three different choices, as Annabeth had also. We agreed to try them on and pick which ones we liked best on ourselves and each other.

The first choice that I had tried on was a black and white striped molded bikini **(A/N: Links to every swimsuit they try on, is on my profile.)**

I waited outside my fitting room for Annabeth. She walked out in a strapless multi-colored bikini.

"I don't think I like this one, I bet if I try to do a cannon ball the top will slide off." Annabeth said pulling up her strapless top.

"I'm sure Percy wouldn't mind, but I would." I said smirking.

She glared and said, "I think that one is okay, but you could do better."

I agreed and put on the next, it was a black and white bikini with a FOX logo and stars on the top and ROCKS across the front of the bottom.

I came outside the stall and found Annabeth waiting for me with a white bikini with a map pattern on it. The bottom was very low cut, leaving almost nothing for anyone to imagine.

"The bottom on that one is too low." I said, cutting her off before she could say anything.

She smiled and said, "That's exactly what I was thinking! I like yours a lot; it displays your personality well. Also Nico will be drooling."

"Ya, I like it too." I said rolling my eyes.

We left to put on the last options. The last one I tried on was a simple black and white Glamour Kills bikini, it wasn't anything special.

Annabeth stepped out in a gray and neon yellow molded bikini that accentuated her tan long legs well.

"Damn girl, I hope you're on birth control because Percy's going to want to jump you!" I said before running into my changing room before she could attack me.

"The answer to that is yes, and I think yours is too simple, go with the second one." She said with gritted teeth from behind my door.

"I like the one you're wearing now."

"I can see that." She said, and then she slammed the door shut and changed quickly.

We grabbed our choices, paid quickly, then shuffled out of the mall and quickly walked to the car.

"I'm driving, again." I said sneakily snatching the keys from her hand again.

She sighed heavily then got into her side. I rolled down the convertible top, cranked the music, and slid on my multicolored Neff sunglasses. **(A/N: Links for sunglasses on my profile.) **Annabeth followed suit and slid on her black Gucci sunglasses with silver hearts on the side.

I gave her a quizzical look and she said, "One of my many Eighteenth birthday gifts from the seaweed brain."

I nodded in a of course way and zoomed out of the parking lot.

**This may seem like a filler chapter, but it isn't that's just where it ended up going when I started writing. I had planned for a lot more to happen, but it didn't work out that way. **

**Review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I wrote it at around two o'clock in the morning and my imagination was running on coffee. Review, please! I love reviews they make my days a little brighter. Sorry, guys, I've been working hard on midterms and other commitments.**

**mspink93- you will see why in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!**

**49- Thanks! I try, to work hard on the plot. **

**Anonymous- Is that a bad thing or good thing?**

**- Adding a fight scene next chapter, working on the romance and adventure. :D Thanks for the awesome advice.**

**Pokemonchen- Thanks, the plot isn't as good as I hoped though.**

_Thalia's POV_

We were currently still driving from our little shopping trip in Annabeth's tiny convertible with the top down and the wind whipping through our hair.

"So, what are we doing that requires a swimsuit?" I yelled over the wind.

"You know how much Percy loves water; he wanted to incorporate some in this trip." Annabeth said while franticly spitting her blond hair out of her mouth and pulling it into a pony tail.

"How did the Seaweed Brain manage to do that?" I inquired.

"We will be skirting the edge of Lake Michigan and Percy decided we would stay there one day and spend a few hours on the beach. He added that if we ever pass a water park while we are looking for a hotel, we are staying at the water park. Oh, yeah, he also wants to swim in the motel pool we are at."

"I hate water parks, filled with kids peeing in the water." I screamed, shuddering at the thought.

"I know how you fell; we have to swim in the motel pool for a while because Percy worked hard on cleaning it this morning." She said as we were idling at one of the only stoplights on our journey.

"Really? Nico and I thought he was getting laid." I said, snickering.

Annabeth blushed and turned away.

"Ah, my little Annie isn't a virgin." I said, feigning sadness.

"Shut up, you won't be one for long." She said, smacking my arm.

"Oh, Hades no, he won't be getting all this for a long time." I said, seriously running my hand up and down my body.

There was silence and then we burst out laughing just as the light turned green.

Soon we arrived at the hotel and climbed out of the car. It was still fairly early considering it was barely nine. I know we are quick shoppers.

In the small kitchenette that consisted of a sink, a small space of countertop, and an overhead cabinet with the door barely hanging on, we saw Nico slurping a bowl of cereal. He stopped drinking, looked up and smiled with a milk mustache. I waved a hello and stuffed my swimsuit in my duffle bag.

"What do you have in there?" He whispered into my ear as his warm breath tickled my neck.

"Nothing you need to see." I said without turning around.

"I think I do need to see what you bought without me." He whispered as he sneakily snaked his arms around my waist.

I turned around and rested my head on his firm chest and listened to his steady heartbeat. He placed his chin on top of my head and rocked on his heels.

"Oh, please, get a room!" Annabeth complained from where she was standing with a bowl of Lucky Charms in her hand.

"We are in a room, maybe you should get out." I retorted breaking away from our embrace, giving Nico a peck on the lips, then grabbing the cereal box.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and turned to Nico.

"Where did you get this stuff?" She asked.

"Stopped at a gas station on the way here, figured everyone would be hungry."

"I'm glad you used that wonderful mind of yours because mama is hungry." I said slurping my cereal. I didn't mind my manners around anyone, especially Nico. What you see is what you get.

"Have you seen Percy?"

At that moment the Seaweed Brain himself walked through the door.

"The pool is officially clean." He said looking proud.

"That's great Seaweed Brain, but we only have an hour till check out." Annabeth said, feigning sadness.

"So? We have to swim for a little while, I need more energy and I didn't work my butt off for nothing."

Annabeth sighed heavily and said, "You guys don't have swimsuits."

"I always have a swimsuit; I'm a son of Poseidon." Percy said pulling his sea green trunks from his bag.

"I knew we would somehow end up with water considering kelp for brains is here." Nico said pulling out black swim trunks.

Annabeth caved and said, "Go put them on we will meet you out there."

Percy let out an excited yip and Nico just followed an almost skipping Percy out the door.

Annabeth used the bathroom to change first.

"Thalia can you tie this for me?" Annabeth's muffled voice came from behind the door.

I tied the gray straps and gave her a once over. Her curly blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders and back gracefully. Her long tan legs were accentuated as were the curves of her hips. She looked amazing.

"Wow Annabeth, you look amazing." I said almost in awe.

She lightly giggled and said, "I'm just the average person." Then put on a gray tank top and jean shorts.

I rolled my eyes and pushed her out of the bathroom then changed into my swimsuit. I managed to tie it myself and stood in front of the full length mirror.

My legs were much shorter and paler then Annabeth's, but were toned and gracefully curved. My hair wasn't as choppy as before and now reached a half an inch below my shoulders. My paleness made my eyes and hair stand out like splatters of paint on a blank canvas.

I keep saying I'm pale, but I've seen worse. You can still see somewhat of a tan on my skin from the Hunters and my freckles sprayed across my nose. I just wasn't as tan as Percy or Annabeth.

My waist dipped in and then widened across my hips then my legs gracefully went from curved to straight. I had much more of a butt then Annabeth, but she had bigger boobs. All in all, I looked pretty good.

I threw on a pair of black FOX board shorts and a wife beater tank top over my swimsuit, grabbed my sunglasses and slid on my flip-flops.

I exited the bathroom to find Annabeth waiting outside the door.

She pouted and said, "I thought I would get to tie it and see before everyone else."

"Sorry, girly, didn't need help tying." We exited the room and quickly made our way to the pool.

I could see the two boys in the pool having a splash fight of epic proportions. Nico splashed Percy mildly, then Percy met him with an I'm-a son-of Poseidon-splash. Nico glared and turned his attention to us.

He grinned that cute, inviting smile of his and climbed out of the pool. He shook his shaggy black hair out, but you could still see the water droplets forming. His abs were impeccable, peaked to perfection from years of training. Rippling cords of muscle wrapped their way across his arms, but you could see the main focus of his was abs. Not one blemish covered his flawless skin, luring you in.

Taking my mind away from him I turned around and slid off my flip-flops and took off my tank top. Before I could reach my board shorts wet arms wrapped around my bare waist giving me goose bumps. I shivered and looked up above me, smiling down at me was my ghost king, still as hot as ever. I pulled away and questioned sarcastically,

"You're soaking wet and you decide that is a good time to hug me?"

"As good of a time as any other," He said not seeing the flaw.

"I wasn't planning on going in the water."

"My ass you weren't, if you aren't I'll just have to make you."

"I can't get my board shorts wet." I said.

"Then take them off."

"I don't want to."

"Why?"

"I feel uncomfortable." I grumbled looking down at the cement.

He grabbed my chin and forced my eyes to his.

"Listen to me; you are the most beautiful girl here, maybe in the entire world. These girls have nothing on you." He said as he motioned to the beach blondes clad in bikinis. I wondered when all these people got here considering it seemed almost empty last night.

I smiled and blushed.

"Fine, but only because I need to take them off to tan. I don't like the water."

I took off my board shorts and heard Nico's breath catch, I slowly turned around and saw him closing his eyes and biting his fist.

"What the Hades are you doing?" I questioned.

"Nothing," He said, franticly covering up the fact he had done anything.

"Okay then." I said, sitting on a lounge chair.

"Oh, no you don't." Then he scooped me up in wet arms and carried me bridal-style towards the pool.

I was punching his chest in protest when I heard, "Plug your nose."

Then we both plunged into the cool pool water.

I surfaced gasping a little for air and looked around. Percy and Annabeth were losing it near the side of the pool. Annabeth still hadn't taken off her clothes. Damn her, I will get her somehow.

Nico resurfaced around six feet away smirking. I glared at him and sent him a you-will-pay look through my glare. He winked then climbed out of the pool. Percy was too engrossed in watching Annabeth take off her jeans off that he didn't see it coming; I saw it from a mile away.

Nico snuck up behind him and pushed him in sending him flailing. While he pushed Percy in he screamed, "Pervert!" Loud enough so everyone who wasn't deaf could hear.

Nico fell to the ground laughing hysterically and rolling on the concrete near the pool. I was chuckling and watching the whole scenario. Percy quickly surfaced and met Nico's laughing with a glare and a massive wave.

I don't know how the mist manipulated that, but the mortals seemed to not even notice.

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be, hm?" Nico asked while raising a thick, black, obsidian wall with sharp edges on the top to meet the water.

_Damn, his powers have increased, I think I like that. I thought to myself, After all, he does have the greatest Geokinesis ability of all the demigods._

Percy then rose up into his own personal hurricane, dragging me into it. Annabeth screamed my name, but it was muffled by the water covering my ears.

**Choppy ending, I know. Review, though! Oh, and thanks to my editor LoveGreenEyes001! :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**I Heart Dragons- I was planning for the gods to notice them, and nothing really happens to her. :P**

**ThaliaDiAngelo- I 'm updating :D Thank you for loving it.**

**LoveGreenEyes001- Thank you my wonderful editor! Love you! **

**Sarah- Actually it's oh my gods!**

**mspink93- I love romance ;) I overdo it a lot.**

**Pokemonchen- What's life without some cheesiness?**

**Thanks for all the past reviews! Read and review some more.**

**Disclaimer- If I was Rick, I wouldn't be on fan fiction now would I? **

_Thalia's POV_

Suddenly the water stopped and the ground began to shake. I resurfaced to find a very furious looking Nico, with his palms splayed out in front of him.

The concrete wall of the pool jutted out and hit Percy in the chest sending him flying. I dragged myself out of the pool sputtering and coughing as Annabeth ran towards me.

"Oh, my gods! Thalia are you okay" She asked franticly.

"I'm fine, but your boyfriend over there isn't" I said pointedly looking at Percy, who was splayed out on his back after crashing into the fence surrounding the pool.

Annabeth ran over to him and shook him, he didn't move, but he was still alive since his chest was rising and falling with difficulty. She then slowly turned around and menacingly narrowed her eyes at Nico.

His eyes widened and he raised his hands in surrender, "I didn't do it on purpose, he was drowning her and an overwhelming sense came over me then the earth shifted knocking him backwards. I'm sure he's okay, just give him some ambrosia."

I struggled to stand up, then in the blink of an eye Nico was in front of me lifting me on my feet. He then examined me for any injury, asking me if I was okay around ten million times.

"I can hold my own in a power fight, I just wasn't expecting it." I said feeling weak and inferior.

"Oh, believe me I know, I still have scars from when I met you." He said.

"I didn't hurt you when you were little, although I did come close to it." I said, remembering.

"Not physically, but you did shatter my little heart."

"Oh, please, you didn't like me then."

"I didn't realize it until now, but I did." He said, "I've always thought you were the most interesting and beautiful girl I ever met, aside from my sister of course."

That comment earned him a punch on the arm from me.

"Cheesy and I could use some nectar or ambrosia." I said groaning, "A mini hurricane takes a lot out of you."

"At your service, my lady." Nico said in a British accent and turning around positioning himself for me to jump on his back.

"Don't mind if I do."

I then latched my arms around his neck and he grabbed my legs with ease. He let go of one of my legs and snatched the bag of ambrosia from the couple who were already lying on the ground making out.

"I guess he feels better already." Nico said chuckling.

"Mhm." I replied moving in to kiss his irresistible neck, which was displayed prominently.

Right before my lips touched his skin he plopped me down on one of the lawn chairs beside the pool. Then he grabbed a small square of ambrosia and practically shoved it at me.

"Eat." He said simply.

I shrugged then popped the square in my mouth and smiled with pleasure. They tasted like the truffles I used to smuggle out of the expensive candy store around the corner from my mother's apartment.

"Better?" He questioned and slid me over so he could lie on the lawn chair also.

"Much." I said smiling at him and giving him a long lingering kiss.

He left his eyes closed and slowly put his head back on the back of the lawn chair. Then he let out a sigh that left me with questions.

"What's wrong? Am I not a good kisser?" I asked hurriedly.

He chuckled, looked me in the eyes, and then said, "Almost too good. It's just that everything is going so well, and I don't want to mess anything up."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you won't." I said resting my head against his chest and snuggling into him. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the top of my head like always.

I fell into a blissful nap feeling protected, happy, and most of all in love.

_Nico's POV_

I didn't fall asleep like my beautiful girlfriend did I stayed awake watching all the mortals clear out from our little display. I wondered what they saw since the mist blocked everything, but at the moment I didn't care. My best friends were happily in love, I had a wonderful girlfriend, all that was left to fix was the gods.

I didn't want to live my life running from the gods, right now they were too lazy to get off their giant buts to go after us. Assuming that they figured out we left. I'm surprised they haven't sent some monsters or a minor god to come after us.

I was lying on my side facing the other happy couple. They were done with their public display of affection and were now walking towards us. I let go of Thalia with one arm and put a finger to my lips, signaling them to be quiet.

"We are going back to the room knock before you come in." Percy whispered, adding a wink at the end.

Annabeth slapped him on the arm and dragged him away by his hair. I softly laughed and checked my watch it was nine-thirty time passed quickly considering the pool trip was a fail. Check out was at ten, but I don't think the old man would notice if we were ten minutes late getting out.

I let Thalia sleep for fifteen more minutes before I tried to wake her up. I unwrapped my arms from around her and slightly shook her and whispered, "Wake up Thals."

She just groaned, so I tried something different. I peppered kisses from her jaw, up her cheek, across her temple, and placed two soft angel kisses on her eyelids.

She smiled and slowly opened her eyes. I rewarded her with a long lingering kiss. She smiled and moaned when I nipped her bottom lip.

"It's time to pack up and head out." I said breaking away from the kiss.

"Do we have to? I'm tired." She groaned.

"Yes, but I will help you to the room." I said scooping her up in my arms.

"I think you have a thing for carrying me." Thalia said.

"Maybe I just have I thing for you." I said smiling warmly.

"I don't know whether to think you're sweet or cheesy." She said taping her chin pretending to ponder.

"Just knock the door." I said as we approached the hotel room door.

She gave me a quizzical look, but complied anyways.

"Come in, it's unlocked." Percy's voice came from through the door.

She turned the door knob and I kicked open the door. I walked in and dropped her on the couch next to Percy. Not like a rag doll though, gently like a fragile vase.

"Where's Annabeth?" Thalia questioned.

"She's in the shower." Percy replied.

"I wonder why." I said sarcastically. **(A/N-For those of you who don't understand, you're lucky you don't)**

"Gross, I don't need that picture my head right after a wonderful nap." Thalia said covering her head with a pillow.

"Did you and Annabeth pack yet?" I asked Percy.

"Yes, how about you guys?"

"No, that's what I'm trying to get Sparky over here to do." **(A/N- I feel like this was in another story, If you think I stole it from you, I promise I didn't do it on purpose.)**

As fast as a cheetah Thalia leaped over the back of the couch, grabbed my arm, and painfully twisted it behind my back.

"Never call me that again." She whispered angrily in my ear.

"Point taken," I said through gritted teeth. I let out a sigh as she let go of my arm.

"Start packing your things, we have to check out."

Annabeth opened the bathroom door with sopping wet hair, and a towel around her.

"Oh, Jesus," I said covering my eyes.

She yelped and ran back into the bathroom, slamming the door in the process.

"That went well." Thalia said.

I chuckled and started throwing things into my bag. Thalia still didn't even move from where she was standing before, so I decided to resort to desperate measures to get her ass moving. As I passed by I slapped her butt, and she yelped.

"What the fuck? Don't touch my ass without permission." She said glaring.

My point got across so I didn't care that she slapped my gluteus maximums on her way to packing her shit.

Annabeth opened the door a crack and screamed, "Percy can you get my clothes? I forgot to take them in with me."

Percy jogged over and gave Annabeth her garments through the door.

Everybody was ready to leave and Thalia decided that was a good time to scream.

"What the fu-"

I was then cut off by a black, leathery winged creature that burst through the window pane."

"Oh, shit…."


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys, I need to decide what Idea to start my next story with. Some ideas need to wait to be published, others I can write right now. Take the poll on my profile to vote for the idea you like best. On a different note, I know more than two people read the last chapter, so please review.

mspink93- Thank you for being one of my faithful reviewers, you have no idea how much that means to me.

Pokemonchen- Thank you also for being a faithful reviewer, without reviewers like you this story wouldn't be continuing.

Disclaimer: I die a little every time I say I don't own Percy Jackson, stop killing me Rick and hand it over!

Nico's POV

Before the furies could get too far into the room, I raised another black obsidian wall to stop them.

"I don't understand, don't you have divine control over the furies?" Thalia questioned over the noise of beating wings, and screeching.

"I do, but I need everyone to leave before I let this wall down. I have a feeling they don't belong to my dad anymore, he tried to help us."

"Why? We can stay and help you fight!" Percy yelled.

"If the furies tell the gods that we're together in one place, they are going to send everything that they have at us." I shouted

"Can't they tell I'm with you? I used my powers." He shouted.

"You're all wasting time! I can't hold this wall forever! I need you all to take my car, since it's a five passenger. I'll catch up to you soon in Annabeth's car."

"I'm not letting you get yourself killed!" Annabeth said, holding the keys in her hand.|

"You've seen me fight before, I can take them!"

"Fine, but don't hurt yourself too much!" Annabeth then threw the keys at me.

I caught them in one hand and turned to Thalia, "Go with them, they will keep you safe as you will keep them."

"I don't want to leave you alone!"

"Goddammit, Thalia! Just do what I say just this once!" I screamed with pleadingeyes.

She grabbed my face in her hands and smashed her soft lips to mine with so much passion that I almost lost my focus. I melted into her, but quickly backed away and motioned for them to go.

As soon as the door slammed shut I let down the wall.

Tisiphone (I could tell it was her by the dog collars around their necks.) then dove at me in a rushed sloppy attack. I effortlessly dodged her and drew my sword.

"I don't understand. I have divine control over you!" I screamed.

"Not anymore, we serve Zeus now. This is brewing into a war, and we always choose the winning side." Alecto snarled.

I willed the earth in the bricks to burst into rubble, leaving a large hole where the wall used to be.

"I think it's time we take this outside." I said smoothly. I ran, and then slid under the fury's hovering body.

The tile in the room soon turned into grass, so naturally my momentum flipped me over and sent me sprawling.

Smooth, Nico, real smooth.

I quickly gathered my thoughts and raised my sword to meet an oncoming fury. I slashed at her wing and she crash landed into the grass. She gracefully rolled and transformed into an old wrinkled woman wearing a gray robe, with snakes for hair

"I thought only Medusa got the snake hair gene." I said tauntingly.

Alecto dove at my back and I jumped high into the air and landed on her neck. Alecto thrashed and ascended higher into the air, but I managed to hold on. I then swiftly drove the pitch black blade of my sword into her head. She disintegrated into golden dust, and I was falling fast through the air. I quickly flipped so my feet were facing down, then roughly landing in a crouch on the ground. I stifled an ear shattering scream as I felt an alarming amount of pain and a snap in my ankle. My landing was too much for my bones to handle.

I turned my attention to Megaera, who was now the only fury with wings. She was hovering only about three feet in the air, taunting me. I could sense the vibrations in the earth of Tisiphone running up behind me so I grabbed her snake hair and judo-threw her into her winged sister. Her talons made four nice sized slashes in my chest. Then they both toppled onto the ground in a mess of talons and snakes.

Without thinking twice I ran over and drove my sword intoMegaera, using it as a vaulting poll to fly over Tisiphone. Megaera disintegrated into golden dust with no more than a snarl.

"It's just me and you now." I said turning to Tisiphone who was climbing off the ground and brushing the remains of her sister off of her like dirt.

"I may not have a sword like you, but I have methods of my own." She hissed bringing out her talons.

In a sloppy move, she ran towards me slashed at my gorgeous face, but in blinded rage and pain I slammed the butt of my sword into her elbow, which cracked like ice. She screeched so high pitched I could hear the dogs whining from across town.

Using her pain as a distraction, I slashed of both her talons, but that still didn't finish her off so I held my sword at her leathery neck. The defenseless fury thrashed and withered, but decided it wouldn't help held still under my blade.

"Tell Zeus when you regenerate; it's going to take a lot more to stop me." I said before slitting the creature's throat.

The adrenaline rush disappeared as fast as Tisiphone did. I collapsed to the ground in a painful heap. I struggled to climb to my feet leaning on my sword, but I managed to make it into Annabeth's car. I then assessed my injuries. I had painful bleeding slashes that looked like they were made by Wolverine, and an ankle that looked twice the size it used to be and made my vision blurry with pain.

Taking deep breaths I decided to get out of there before anyone could see the damage I had done. I drove with one foot and called Annabeth's emergency cell phone.

"Hello, Nico are you okay?" Annabeth asked, hurriedly.

"Ya Annabeth I'm fine, just tell me where you are." I said gritting my teeth in pain. The last thing I needed was everyone worrying about me.

"We stopped at a golf course in Spring Field Township. It's on Mountain Av. I think." Annabeth recited.

"I'll be there soon."

I then used my badass GPS in my phone to find the golf course. I made it there and found my car in the parking lot. I slowly, and painfully I might add, climbed out of Annabeth's low to the ground, convertible.

"Oh, my gods Nico, what happened to you?" Thalia said runningover too me and crushing me in a hug.

I winced and staggered back when she put her head on my chest.

"Thals, let go, you'll get blood all over you." I said, unwrapping her arms from around me.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see the ones on your chest, and I was too focused on your face." She said grazing her hand over the slashes on my face. I winced and limped away.

"Let me see those." Annabeth said, elbowing her way through Percy and Thalia.

"You've had too much nectar and ambrosia in a span of a few days, so they will have to heal naturally. Are you limping? What happened?" She rambled, taking out the peroxide that I hate so dearly.

"I fell from around ten feet in the air and fell on my feet in a crouching position, and it was too much pressure for my bones to take." I said, sliding off my shoes and leaning against my beautiful machine.

"Gwen was good to you right?" I asked, wincing as Annabeth prodded at my ankle.

"Who the Hades is Gwen?" Thalia asked, curiously.

"My beautiful masterpiece of a car."

"She's wonderful, how did you afford something so nice, and not to mention expensive." Percy said.

"Because I'm a badass motherfucker, kidding, but being the ghost king has its perks." I said with a weak smirk.

"Seeing as we don't have time for you to be limping around on crutches, I will pour some nectar on your ankle and I should soak through your skin to the bones. Not enough to completely mend the bones though, we wouldn't want you burning up now would we? It will be sore for a few days." Annabeth rambled taking out her canteen and putting a small amount of nectar on my ankle.

I sighed in relief as the pain dulled into an annoying ache. Annabeth took out gauze, medical tape, and antibiotic cream out of her little first-aid kit.

She made me lean my head back and cover my eye while she tried to pour peroxide into my gashes. I was too tall for her petite frame to reach so she made Percy do it.

"You get that in my eye, I will wring your neck." I said threateningly at Percy.

He gulped and poured the liquid onto my wound. I could hear the bubbling as it cleansed slashes. Percy, with surprising gentleness, blotted it with a paper towel.

"I think it would be pointless to put gauze on this one, because air will help it heal faster. We just need to keep it clean." Annabeth said.

"Take off your shirt, we need to get the ones on your chest."

"Oh, Annabeth just admit it, you just want to see my fine body." I said winking and taking off my t-shirt.

"I already have a guy with a fine body." Annabeth giggled and wrapped her arms around Percy. He just smirked and winked.

"Oh, please, my man's much hotter." Thalia said coming out of her long held silence.

"Okay, now that we settled that, fix my chest." I said, flexing my Pecs.

I could see Thalia smirk as lust danced over her pupil a little. Annabeth complied and started to clean my wound, soon she had gauze tapped on my chest.

"Let's get this show on the road." I said climbing into my car.

"Agreed," We all climbed into our cars and drove towards Nike.

I'm not the best at fight scenes, so bear with me. Read and review! Pleaseeeee! As always, thanks, LoveGreenEyes001! :D


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok guys; please vote on my poll. It's now on my profile correctly. (Thanks to Pokemonchen.) I would like to know your favorite line/part of the story. Read and review!**

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_Thalia's POV_

Have you ever wondered if your life is all a dream? That you're going to wake up and everything will just crumble as fast as you woke. I've never been this happy and content in my entire life; this leads me to think I'm dreaming.

Back in reality, Nico was driving with such concentration that he could've been doing heart surgery. He had a faraway look in his eyes that puzzled me.

I quickly flicked his ear, and he jumped about ten feet in the air.

"What's on your mind ghost boy?" I questioned curiously.

"Nothing, nothing," He said hastily.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" I said, leaning towards him and peering up at him through my eyelashes.

"It's nothing that you would understand."

That left me stunned; I quickly backed up and slammed myself against the opposite side of the car.

"Oh, gods, I must sound like an ass, I-"

"No kidding, a giant, ugly, hairy ass." I muttered, interrupting him.

He slammed his head on his white knuckled hands that gripped the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry, Thals, but I don't want to upset you, or worry you, or anything of that demeanor." He said, trying to correct his words.

"I can take it; I'm not some weak little girl that weeps at road kill." I said not yet letting up the scowl on my face.

"I keep getting this weird feeling, almost like when someone dies, but much, much weaker. I'm afraid that something is going to happen to someone I care about, like you, Percy, or Annabeth. Maybe I'm just developing a new power. I just don't know Thals." Nico rambled, spilling out what was on his mind.

As he spoke, the scowl let up on my face and I started to shake with suppressed laughter.

"This is not funny! I tell you what you want to hear and you laugh at me?" Nico said with hurt.

"I'm not laughing at you; I'm laughing at the fact that you thought that would upset me. I mean sure it worries me a little. You know what really worries me? I worry that one day I'll wake up, I'll be with the hunters and I'll lose you forever, I couldn't bear it. I worry that someone will die or end up seriously injured. What I mean by someone, is you." I said tears welling up in my eyes.

Nico sharply pulled over that sent Percy and Annabeth flying past in her convertible.

Nico turned to me with wide eyes and gently took my face in his hands and turned my eyes towards him. I tried to look away, not letting see the tears that were about to fall. His eyes franticly searched my face, analyzing my emotions.

"Thals look at me; oh, gods just look at me with your beautiful blue eyes that melt my insides like no others." He said, desperately trying to lock eyes with me.

As soon as I looked into his warm brown eyes he took me under my arms and effortlessly lifted me onto his lap. I gasped as he roughly smashed his soft lips against mine. This kiss was full of longing, lust, and hostility .Nothing like the tentative, unsure, gentle few kisses we'd shared. It was almost like he was trying to prove to me like he was real and he would never leave. Boy did he do a good job at that.

He moaned as I slipped my tongue into his mouth deepening the kiss. I smiled through the kiss at the noises I was capable at making him make. This gave him the opportunity to take control. He took my bottom lip between his and sucked on it, which made me moan with longing.

I slid my hand under his shirt and danced my fingers across his washboard abs. The sound of a car horn jerked my head upward at hit the top of the car.

"Shit," I cursed holding my head in my hand.

"Let me see." Nico said.

I bent my head down and he prodded at it asking me what hurt. He kissed my head and said, "You'll have an egg and a head ache, nothing major though."

"Sexy, my boyfriend is hot and a doctor." I said winking.

Nico murmured in agreement and went to kiss me again. I swiftly slid off his lap and slammed into my seat. He pouted at me like a baby, and in reply I pointed out the windshield to Percy and Annabeth parked facing us and Annabeth was leaning on the hood that was coincidently pointed straight towards ours. Percy smirked backing away from the car horn.

"If that didn't prove to you that I'm all yours and this is real, I don't know what will." He said.

Nico climbed out of his car and walked toward them. I hastily climbed out and followed him.

"You always have to ruin my fun, don't you, Percy?" He said looking at him accusingly.

"You were canoodling; we have to get to Utah." He said in a matter-of-fact way.

"We'll get to Utah, but right now I'm driving blind. Are we going the right way? Can you check the map, Annabeth?" Nico said.

"We just need to go east till we hit garden state parkway, then head north till we hit route 78, then continue west."

"Great, I didn't understand half of what you just said, so you're leading." Nico said, not paying any attention to Annabeth, but to the cows on the side of the road.

"Who owns those cows, they need a home. Maybe they are strays. Do stray cows exist?" Nico said mostly to himself, mindlessly wondering towards them.

"Nico, I'm sure the cows are fine. We need to get to Utah, so let's go."

He walked back to the car muttering something about cows and murder in your sleep. I decided not to let his disturbing grumbling bother me, then almost reluctantly got in the car. It's too damn nice of a car to reluctantly get into it.

"See you later, Bertha." He said looking longingly at the cows through his rearview mirror, as he caught up to Percy and Annabeth.

It was silent for a while so I just slid on my sunglasses and slouched in my seat.

"You know I'd never leave you, right?" Nico said, suddenly serious again.

"I know, but I guess I have abandonment issues. You know with Luke, my mom, then my dad." I said trying to hide the hurt in my voice, by making it sound indifferent.

"I know, but I'm nothing like them. I would never abandon you or drive you to the point of abandoning me." He said, averting his attention back to the road.

The rest of the ride was silent except for the Mayday Parade playing softly in the background. I have to say, Annabeth was driving fairly fast 80 miles per hour on route 78. Wait—never mind, Percy doesn't have wild blond hair, so he's driving.

Around the same time, Nico came to the same realization.

"Let's have some fun." He said as he smirked and winked at me.

"Oh, gods, this will be good." I said, actually putting on my seatbelt and instructing Nico to do the same.

"If you're going to pull some kind of stupid-ass stunt, put on your seatbelt!" I screamed. He wouldn't listen to me the first time so I had to resort to yelling.

"Jesus Christ, keep your panties on. Wait, never mind." He said, winking and finally putting his seatbelt on.

"Sick-minded bastard," I said cringing.

He chuckled as he sped up and swerved in front of Percy. Percy tried to swerve around him, but Nico wouldn't let him pass. In the rearview mirror, I could see Annabeth cursing at Percy and Percy had a look of determination and fury. He didn't even notice the insults flying at him.

Percy managed to run alongside of us and stuck his middle finger up and moved it around in a circle, smirking

"Smart ass," Nico said cracking a grin.

Percy swerved in front of us in the convertible, and drove between two trucks. Nico followed behind in pursuit. Nico's car was much faster and better equipped than Annabeth's little car. If Percy had his car, a midnight blue mustang, (I know the all American boy car.) He might actually stand a chance.

"Let's see how much you think of yourself after this." Nico said smirking evilly. He picked up speed swerved around Percy and pulled the emergency brake, which sent him into a 180 degree spin. He quickly shifted into reverse and started picking up speed in reverse. He stuck his middle finger out so Percy could clearly see it.

"Are you nuts?" I screeched looking in the review mirror as Nico swerved in and out of the cars in reverse like it was nothing.

"Oh, shit!" He said frantically swerving around so he was pointing the correct way and barely made it on to the ramp you need to take to merge onto I-80. **(A/N: Anyone know where I got the inspiration from?)**

Percy was chuckling in amusement as was Annabeth, who finally found the humor in the situation. They both slowed down to a normal speed to take the ramp with ease.

"I didn't know you could drive." I said grinning.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me." He said smoothly.

Nico turned into a diner, signaling Percy to follow. They pulled into adjacent parking spots and climbed out. Percy got us a table, and we all sat down.

"I think we should drive through the night taking turns, considering all the lost time we spent." Annabeth said.

"I can't say I'll like it, but I'll do it." Nico said.

I muttered in agreement.

"Thals, what are you doing?" Nico questioned the way I was sitting. My head was lolled against the window and my legs and feet were on his lap.

"Out of my mind right now, be back in five minutes." I said, closing my eyes.

_Aphrodite's POV_

"I can't believe it!" Zeus screamed as he was watching Hephaestus TV. He was currently watching Nico Di Angelo cream all three furies.

"I can, you mess with fire, and you get burned." I said, failing to sound wise

Summon Moiri." Zeus said hotly.

"Why?" I questioned innocently.

"We are unleashing Lamia." He said through gritted teeth.

"She'll kill them!" I screeched.

"That is now my objective, I don't care who kills them I want them dead!"

**Thanks for reading guys! Suggestions, questions, and ideas are always appreciated.**** Vote on the poll, and tell favorite line/part****.**** Review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry it took me so long to update, my social life is getting me down in a rut. My imagination isn't running as freely. I've been sick (again!),and I just haven't been in the mood to write. Thanks so much for all the support! Read and review please.**

**Anonymous- Thanks, although I would appreciate it that if you're going to review twice that you word each one differently.**

**Sunleafarm-Thank you, same goes with the multiple reviews.**

**Hades favorite daughter10- Ahh! Thank you, thank you! My 50threviewer! (Not counting the multiple duplicate reviews, not that I don't appreciate them I do.) Updating!**

**Rompo- I noticed some of my favorites and alerts started dropping off, I don't know why. I was like No, don't delete my story! D:Hopefully it doesn't happen again. I love ideas and feedback, and I thank eachand every reviewer.**

**LoveGreenEyes001- Thank you my wonderful editor! (Although lazy at times. :P) I love that line too!**

**Blackroses..thing001- That was a meaningful line. :3 That chapter was full of fluff; it was really fun to write. It took me a while towrite this chapter though, sorry. :P **

**Pokemonchen- You'll have to wait and see who Lamia is. ;) Haha, I loved a lot of that part.**

**mspink93- It had a deep meaning, it's hard to understand or explain. The cows were a very random fragment of my odd mind. I love to write fluffy chapters.**

**Disclaimer- I don't own anything!**

_Thalia's POV_

_I just felt like I needed to relax for a while. I did that thing that Artemis taught us to do if we felt we were under stress. She always said to close your eyes, and let your mind wander. You'll suddenly find yourself in your own fantasy world._

"_Mommy, I gots to go poo-poo." A little boy with olive skin and bright eyes said._

"_Hold on, sweetie." A woman in her mid-thirties said. She placed a little bundle in a tiny crib._

_She quickly walked over and scooped up the little boy in her arms. The little boy screeched with laughter as she tickled him gently. He tugged at her raven hair and called, "Daddy! Daddy!"_

_I could hear heavy footsteps running up the stairs as a man, that strangely looked exactly like Nico, but only older, ran through the room._

"_What's the evil queen torturing you with now?" He asked playfully, as he grabbed the captured little boy from the women's arms._

"She won't take me to the potty!" He grumbled haughtily.

"Well then I guess I'll have to take you." He said, tossing the little boy over his shoulder and tossed a wink towards the women behind his back.

She had her head tilted back in laughter as I heard a faint voice.

"Thals, Thals!"

I quickly snapped my eyes open. Nico was shaking me and saying,"Thals, Thals! Wake up, wait— I don't think you're sleeping, but wake up!"

"If you can't see that I'm completely awake, you'd have to be an idiot."

He grinned that lopsided smirk that gets me every time.

"Sorry?" He said as if it were a question. His head was slightly tilted and his forehead was creased as he scrunched his eyebrows.

"I can't stay mad at you for more than a few hours, so why bother trying." I said nonchalantly as I gave him a quick peck.

"No one can resist the charm." He said, tilting his chin upward and grinning satisfactorily.

"We'll see about that." Annabeth grumbled from her side of the both.

Nico glared at her playfully and she had to laugh.

"Okay, so we should probably map out our route considering we've been wasting time stopping to ask each other where the fuck we're going." Percy said seriously.

We all looked at him astonished. Percy looked as if he was going to say, "What are you looking at?"

Annabeth saw that look and quickly cut in front of him by saying, "You're always the one goofing around, and we are always the ones that have to shut you up and talk seriously."

"How many times to I have to tell you people? I have my moments!" Percy said, feigning hurt and looking exasperated at the same time.

"Yeah, let's see how long those last." Annabeth mumbled.

"Everyone knows you love me." Percy said leaning in to kiss her. Annabeth giggled like an Aphrodite girl (mental puke), pulled him closer by his shirt and smashed her lips to his.

"Get a room." Nico said.

Percy responded by simply flicking him off. A waiter came over and cleared his throat loudly. They quickly jumped apart and attempted to fix their disheveled hair and clothes.

"Thanks for that, man." Nico said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Don't mention it." He said waving him off with a hand.

"My name is Dustin and I'll be your waiter for the small amount of time you visit this shity diner," He flashed a fake smile with white teeth, "What can I get for you." He said as if he had said nothing unusual.

"I like this guy." Nico said grinning and turning towards me.

"Have to say for everyone, we like him too. The most real person we've meant on this hell-bent journey." I said nodding approvingly.

The waiter chuckled and ran a hand through his dirty blond hair," So what'll it be?"

"Just coffee—black, like my soul," Nico said. (A/N: Anyone know where I took that quote from. Disclaimer: No I don't own it, a mystery person does.)

"Such a fail," I said, snorting laughter.

"At least I don't snort." He retorted. I glared and took my feet off his lap and repositioning myself.

Dustin chuckled and quietly left the table.

"You can't resist me." Nico said his breath hot on my neck.

"Who says?" I said, teasingly moving my hair away.

"I say." He said as his lips grazed my neck. I shivered and tried to pull his head closer to the skin. He resisted then suddenly brought his lips down higher up on my neck under my ear. He lightly sucked on it, butnot enough to leave a hickey. I made an involuntary moaning sound and closed my eyes.

"We—are—in—a—_ RESTAURNT_!" Percy said putting large spaces between the words and emphasizing restaurant.

I reluctantly opened my eyes and let out a sigh of discontent as Nico moved his mouth away from my neck and said, "That didn't see to stop you."

"True, but sucking neck rather than face, are two different things." Dustin said as he placed black coffee calmly in front of Nico.

"Thank you very much." Percy said in a matter of fact way, and raising his hand in appreciation. Dustin just shrugged and moved on to another table.

"Now, no more, and let's focus." Annabeth said pulling out two large maps from her messenger bag.

Percy made a mocking face but Annabeth didn't notice because she was drawing almost a straight line across the whole thing while muttering to herself.

"Okay." She said, holding up the map so Nico and I could see it.

"We are in Roxbury Township." She said, pointing to a small red dot in the upper half of New Jersey.

"We need to get to Salt Lake City." She then pointed at a large dot in the upper half of Utah.

"It's pretty much a straight shot west, so I say we drive for another four hours and that should get us to Du Bois, Pennsylvania. You just follow I-80 and I'll show you the ramp to exit on." Annabeth said.

"Well, let's get a move on." Nico said, slapping ten dollars on the table and sliding out of the booth.

"See you, Dustin; hope we cross paths again soon." I said, waving while walking out the door as the bell jingled.

He grinned and waved at us through the window. I ran into the parking lot and got in the driver's side of Nico's wonderful machine.

"You scratch it, you die." He said tossing me the keys as he slammed to door on his side.

"Mhm," I said putting on my sunglasses, opening to sun roof, and cranking the radio. I purposely burned rubber as I turned left out of the diner. I laughed with joy as I saw Nico's face.

"Do you think we will be able to defeat Nike?" I asked, worriedly out of know where. I had just been thinking about it for a while and decided to see what Nico thought.

"I'll do everything in my power to make sure you and everyone else come out safe and alive." Nico said placing his hand on mine, which was on top of the shifter.

"Your right, it'll all be fine." I said reassuring myself more than him.

Soon one of my favorite songs soon came on the radio.

"I love this song!" I screeched over the wind and band instruments.

"Me too!"

We were soon belting out the lyrics,

"_They said all teenagers scar the living shit out of me!_

_They could care less, as long as someone'll bleed!_

_So darken your clothes, or strike a violent pose!_

_Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me!"_

We were shaking our heads to the music and doing the air guitar or drums. I'm sure we were getting a few weird looks from innocent old ladies on the interstate, but I could care less. The song ended too soon and I turned down the radio.

We were laughing and having an all-around great time.

"I am so stupidly and insanely in love with you." He said laughing in disbelief.

"Ditto, I'm so glad I found you." I said with a small smile.

Without warning, the car lurched and I was thrown forward violently, the seat belt biting into my chest and knocking the wind out of me. The sound of raining glass echoed in my ears as an airbag exploded in my face. Then I was consumed in a world of darkness.

**Who can guess what song they were listening to? R&R!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry I haven't been updating as much as I should, I've been busy. Any ways tell me your favorite line; vote on my poll, and review!**

**Pokemonchen- Ya I know, it annoys my editor also. It was starting to annoy me because it wouldn't getting out of my fucking head! You'll see who that was. ;) Thanks again for reviewing. My most faithful reviewer. **

**Son of Hyperion (Chapter 11)- I know ;) Thanks for reviewing.**

**Rompo- Haha, and Thanks!**

**Son of Hyperion (again)- Thanks, for reviewing and liking good music. ;) It's hard to find some people who make decent choices of music. **

**LoveGreenEyes001- You'll see… (insert manical smirk here) You're the bad editor! Read more thoroughly! Thanks for reviewing though… :)**

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**ThaliaDiAngelo- Correct! Thanks! **

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**Blackroses..thing001- Updating! Thanks!**

**Thals- You'll see what happens! Muhahahahaha! Also I completely agree, Thalico forever!**

_Zeus's POV_

Soon the double doors in the front of the Hephaestus TV room burst open. A woman in sweeping gray robes had flung them aside in one sweep of arms.

"I was summoned." She said in a hard tone. The women had bright, brilliant, lime-green eyes that burned their way into your soul, and you couldn't do anything to defend yourself against them.

"Yes, Moiri, Zeus had some business to attend to with you." With that Aphrodite strutted back through the room and exited the same way Moiri came.

"I have other duties to attend to, so make this swift." She said severely.

"We need you to unleash Lamia on some important people we need gone." I said curtly. I, king of the gods, do not like being rushed.

"Well, Lamia cannot be unleashed on such short notice. We need perfect conditions and important items that belonged to her victims."

"You answer to me, you will so what I say, when I said it." I demanded.

"I need close items of theirs." She said tersely. Her angular face tightened considerably.

"That can be arranged." I said while smiling agitatedly.

_Percy's POV_

All of a sudden a hazy image shot forward out of the trees and onto the road. I swerved to avoid it as it rounded back and came around the back of the car, into the forest.

"What the Hades was that?" Annabeth said, warily taking out her golden dagger.

"I'm sure it was just something harmless." I said driving more carefully though.

Just then it shot out towards Thalia and Nico's car and slammed into the passenger's side. The car flipped over from the amount of force and skidded on the asphalt leaving sparks in its wake. The horrible sound of scarping and crushing metal on asphalt overwhelmed my ears.

"Oh, my gods!" Annabeth screeched, "Pull over!"

I shook myself out of my trance and immediately took action. Skid marks covered the road as I screeched to a stop beside the wreck.

Annabeth jumped out of the car before it completely stopped and sprinted over to the wreck. I was numb as the noise faded in my ears. The only sound I could comprehend was the hard beating of my own heart. I ran over and slid on a piece of scrap metal flailing my arms as I practically surfed over there on the piece of metal.

The highway was fairly empty, but a SUV ran around the wreck and apparently called 911. We didn't need anyone, much less mortals knowing where we were going or heading.

Thankfully, there wasn't any fire, so we assumed we had around five minutes before the police got here.

"Okay, you grab Nico out of the other side, and I'll try to get Thalia out!" She said over the sirens growing louder in the distance.

I ran around the car and tried to pry open the door with my hands, but it wouldn't budge. I saw that Annabeth carried a crowbar in her trunk (the reason, I don't know.), but I didn't care because now it would be of use.

I opened the trunk and searched among the odd contents of her trunk. There was a heavy blanket, a sheet, a jug of water (that looked entirely too warm for my taste.), a bag of mush (I didn't know how else to describe it besides, mush.), and finally the crowbar. I rushed back over and put my foot against the door and pulled with all my might. My teeth were gritted and I could feel the vain on the side of my head popping out.

I felt a cool rush of air behind my back and warily turned around. Leaning up against a tall pine tree was a hazy image of a women's silhouette, but you could barely tell due to the way a maroon cloak fell over her body. She drew a long scythe and smiled manically and she had fangs that grew into the size of a saber tooth's tiger's tusks. Okay, so I was over exaggerating a bit, but they were still huge and protruded to the edge of her chin. Under the cloak you could see a serpent's tail wrapped with snake skin wrapped around her waist.

With cat-like grace, she practically floated over to me. In a flash, she had her hands wrapped around my neck and were diving for my neck. At the last second, I ducked under with enough force that her hands had to go with. I couldn't figure out how she had the strength of three men, but I could barely see her. She had the consistency of fog.

I doubted that Riptide would pierce her skin, if she had any skin, so I had to think of other solutions. I racked by brain of any demoness that had a serpent's tail. I thought back to the lesson Annabeth had taught, but I was barely paying attention because I was mesmerized at the way the light hit her blonde locks and made them look like freshly spun gold.

I could remember hearing about the child eating demoness, and quickly thought of something. It wasn't my favorite route, but I hoped it would work. I wasn't a mere child, but close enough. I drew riptide and drew a long incision down the length of my fore arm. It wasn't very deep, but still brought bright red, fresh blood to the surface.

She stared at the blood and licked her fangs. She seemed to be having a battle in her mind. I took the opportunity fling spatters of blood at her hazy form. Where the blood touched the image she seemed to turn real. The blood spread and you could see real skin forming. She breathed in through her nostrils and tilted her head back and laughed.

"You're only making me stronger; I haven't felt this good in centuries." She hissed.

"I cannot fight something that doesn't exist, so why not make it real?" I said.

"As if you could take me on, your little friends over there aren't even her to help you." She jeered.

The blood had almost completely spread, so I took action. With no warning I flipped through the air, and over her head. Keeping my sword connected with her body I bent backwards slashing her through her middle. She blew away with the wind, not even giving me a challenge.

"Really, this is all you got?" I screamed towards the sky, taunting Zeus.

"A little help Percy!" Annabeth shouted.

She was pulling on the crowbar with all the force her petite body could handle. I jogged over and pulled on the crowbar some more. The door fell loose and crashed to the ground. Nico's head was on his chest and blood poured out of his mouth. From an unknown source, blood ran down his temple dripping onto the tarmac. That was just what I could see; I could only imagine what was going on under his clothes.

"Oh, gods," Annabeth said, covering her mouth with her hand and bit back a sob.

"He'll be fine." I said, reassuring her and myself.

I carefully pulled Nico out through the door and laid him down on the ground gently.

"Annabeth, we have a two person car, what are we supposed to do with two unconscious teenagers?" I asked cautiously.

"Pull them into the woods and we'll just have to drive the car in." Annabeth said thinking.

As softly as I could, I hauled Nico into the woods, and then went to help Annabeth get Thalia out. Her door wasn't nearly as hard to open, but I could see her condition was horrible. Her lip was slit open, a black eye was forming, and I could see an egg on her head starting to form. We dragged her into the forest also.

Annbeth took the car and found a fairly open spot without too many trees to hide her car in. She dashed back across the road and jumped into the forest with me. We backed up a little farther and caught our breath.

The ambulance and police cars screeched to a stop in front of the wreck and got out.

"Now, that was a close one." Annabeth said breathlessly.

"Tell me about it."

**Thanks for reading! Favorite line, vote on the poll, and R&R!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ello, lovelys! **

**Pokemonchen- I'm not really going to elaborate much on that confusing line, I'll leave you to figure that out. ;) Also, you are very most welcome. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Angelwings1780- I'm updating; and it was not a filler chapter, in my opinion. Thanks for the review and the compliment!**

**olympusgirl12- uh-oh is right! Haha, thanks for reviewing.**

**LoveGreenEyes001- Thanks for reviewing, my best friend and editor!**

**Rompo- Haha, I know, right? Thanks for reviewing and the compliment on the story!**

**Blackroses..thing001- I was actually kind of worried on the quality of the fight scene, so thanks for the reassurance. Thanks for reviewing.**

**Unknown- Thank you! :D Next time let me know it was you next time J.O!**

**How- to- smile- 101- Thanks! I will be sure to provide some in your life.**

**Okay you guys, I'm sorry I haven't been updating, I've just had a lot going on. I've been trying to get better on the instrument I play in band. (At the moment I suck, and am in danger of getting kicked out into the lower band.) :P I've started two other stories, and its track season! (My friends *cough* LoveGreenEyes001 *cough* signed me up without my consent. -_- ) My grades have been slipping a tiny bit, so I need to really concentrate. Bear with me, as I hope it will get better in a month or two.**

**I'm so thankful for my reviewers for sticking with me, through writers block, business, and just plan laziness. Also, just to be clear I'm not a geek or any other stereotype; I just like to be the good at whatever I do. (This is a horrible quality to have most of the time.) Sorry for the long writer's note, I'll get on with the story now.**

Annabeth's POV

Percy and I watched as the mortals did a thorough search of the scene. Apparently, they didn't find anything convincing because the cleanup crews moved in and started picking up all the debris. A tow truck came and took away the hunk of metal that was once Nico's car.

"Wait, what about our bags? Weren't they in the trunk of Nico's car?" Percy questioned, watching the tow truck drive away. The hustle and bustle was now replaced by a soothing silence.

I smiled slyly and pulled our bags out from behind a tree.

"Bu—how did you—what?" Percy stuttered, struggling to find words.

"You were so busy in your heroic battle against Lamia, that you didn't even notice me prying open the trunk of their car." I said, smirking in a knowing way.

Percy grinned from ear to ear and scooped me up in his arms and twirled me around.

"And that, my dear, is one of the many reasons, I love you." He whispered in my ear, and then gave me a quick peck on the check.

I shivered, then came to my senses and said, "Okay, unconscious teenagers, here."

"Oh, right." Percy flushed and let me go.

"They look pretty bad; I don't know where to start." I said, surveying their injuries.

"I'm your faithful assistant, doctor. I will help you in any way possible." Percy said, failing to keep the smirk off of his face.

I playfully pushed him in the direction of the car and told him to grab everything inside of my trunk and the large first-aid kit out of the glove box.

I pushed Nico's floppy, ebony bangs off of his forehead and found a large gash across his left side of his temple and ran through his eyebrow. I sensed that he'd need stitches there, and we'd use the little nectar and ambrosia we had on the more serious injuries.

Percy came back with the first-aid kit and the things from my trunk. I told him to move Thalia and Nico more towards the trees, and I laid the heavy blanket on the dirt floor. Percy didn't put Thalia down he was his hand down her temple and pushed her hair out of the sticky blood that covered her head.

I know he thought of Thalia as a sister and it pained him to see her in this condition. I could have sworn I saw tears in his eyes as he set her down gently on the blanket. He hefted Nico up and laid him down also. He had taken Nico under his wing since the first time he saw him.

"Do you think it would be good stitch them up before they wake-up?" I asked him softly, not wanting to break the silence.

"I think so because we don't have any numbing agents, and hopefully they won't wake-up." He said with a small tight lipped smile.

I took the curved needle and wound the thread through. I hoped this was dissolvable because I really didn't want to deal with removing them. His forehead and eyebrow were stitched and I was looking for more wounds that had to be sealed. Percy removed Nico's shirt and shoes. I sucked in a breath.

The slashes that were previously healing were ripped open deeper and larger. A large purple bruise wrapped around from the front of the hip and around his back. It seemed to center on the hip part of the pelvic bone. I grabbed the hydrogen peroxide and poured on the gashes. Nico groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He tried to move his neck and brought it back down defeated.

I leaned over him and softly said, "You probably have whiplash. Try not to move your neck too much. You have stitches already, but you will still need more on your chest. You and Thalia were in a car accident."

He perked up at the mention of Thalia, "Where is she?"

"She's right next to you, slowly turn your neck." I said, trying to save him from talking a lot.

He didn't listen to my advice and immediately sat up and winced. Thalia's head rested on Percy's thigh as he sat cross-legged. It almost looked as if she was sleeping peacefully if there weren't blood stains and bruises allover her.

He carefully inched closer to her and started to stroke her hair. A few tears escaped his eyes and landed on her face. He quickly turned red as it ran across a patch of dried blood.

"Why haven't you helped her yet?" He snapped whipping his head around to face me, completely forgetting the whiplash and the pain that came with moving his neck.

"I figured after I finished the easier injuries first I could focus on the larger ones later." I said meekly.

"Forget about me, take care of her." He said, tightening his jaw, "I'm sorry; I just need you to help her before me."

"Just let me finish, I was in the middle of stitching you up." I said, gesturing to the needle and thread in my hand.

"Okay." He said, reluctantly lying back down.

He seemed to be immune to the pain, his eyes looked unfocused. I finished and asked him if there was anything else. He gestured to his knee and pulled up his jean pant leg. His knee was swollen to almost twice its normal size. I grabbed the nectar and poured the last of it in his mouth. His knee immediately began to look normal.

"That's the last of the nectar." I said slowly, waiting for Nico's reaction.

"What about the ambrosia?" He questioned quickly.

"All gone, I thought I had some left, but it was all crumbs."

Nico's hands went to his head, and tangled themselves in his hair, "Why didn't you use the nectar on her?" He said with suppressed anger.

His once warm brown eyes seemed to have fire blazing behind his pupil. He almost reminded me of Hades at that point.

Suddenly, we heard the snapping of a tree branch and the flapping wings of birds taking flight. And out of the blue, the hourglass silhouette of a thin woman was visible in the shadows. The branches seemed to part on their own to make way for her. She was wearing a cream-colored chiton and her hair was piled on the top of her head in an intricate lace work of braids and light brown ringlets.

As she came closer I sucked in a breath, I knew who she was. The icy-blue eyes that seemed to be every color at once, the glowing tan skin, not to mention the perfect body, this was Lady Aphrodite—in one of her many beautiful forms.

I hastily bowed at her feet, "Lady Aphrodite."

Nico and Percy seemed to register who this beautiful woman was almost at once; they then proceeded to bow at her feet.

Aphrodite giggled, it sounded like bells, "Rise Heroes of Olympus, children of the gods, not to mention fugitives in our world."

We all stood, and Percy shuffled around nervously next to me. We'd only been in the presence of the love goddess a few times, but he didn't need to look like a clumsy fool. I elbowed him and he grunted in response. He seemed to understand because he didn't move a muscle after that.

"You see young children; I have come to help you." She said in a melodious voice.

"Why?" Nico asked, genuinely surprised.

"I have been watching you since the day you left, waiting until you most needed me. I can't let my two favorite couples of the century perish, now can I? Zeus doesn't suspect a thing, he hasn't been watching me, and so he can't know I'm here. How can I be of service?"

I was—simply saying—astonished. We now had four gods on our side. Only two or three more would tip the scale of power.

"Can you help Thalia?" Nico asked. Naturally, that was the only thing on his mind at the moment.

"I'm no Apollo, but I'm sure I can help."

She sauntered over to where Thalia rested. Her head rested in Nico's hands as he whispered soothing things to her, wondering if she would hear them.

"May I?" She whispered, tucking her feet under her as she sat.

Nico nodded and gently placed Thalia's head on Aphrodite's silk clad thighs. The heels of Aphrodite's feet were tucked under her buttocks as she gently pulled Thalia's hair out from under her head and placed it on her shoulders.

Aphrodite began to hum as she trailed two fingers down Thalia's temple and around her eye. The bruise began to fade and the blood flow had stopped and now was dissolving into thin air. She continued this practice until all of Thalia's injuries faded, and she even had a glow to her. Aphrodite stopped humming and replaced Thalia's head onto the blanket as she unfolded her legs out from under her and stood slowly, and gracefully.

"She should wake very soon. I'll be looking out for you. I'll try to send a warning before Zeus sends something else after you. He's too lazy to get up and go after you himself. Hopefully, I can convince a few more gods to come to your aid so the balance will be tipped.

"Until then, find the elixir. Zeus has put a reward on your heads for the minor gods. Only Nike was interested. You have four days until the Olympics, where Nike will surely make an appearance. Hurry, young heroes, and may love guide you along the way." Aphrodite told us as she walked back into the trees and disappeared.

Soon Thalia began to stir. Nico looked up from the book he was pretending to read as he leaned on a tree and worried.

She screamed and her eyes shot open.

"Nico!" She screeched.

He rushed to her side as Percy and I followed suit.

Nico sat down beside her and lifted her up and put her head on his chest as he breathed in the fragrance of her hair.

"Nico," She said more quietly.

"Shh, I'm here." He said as he cradled her in his arms, "And I 'm not going anywhere."

**Thanks for reading! Review and tell me what's your favorite line…and candy!**

**:D**


	15. Chapter 15

**Pokemonchen- Haha, I know that was a weird line, and I love lots of candy too. Thanks for reviewing! :D**

**LoveGreenEyes001- Ahhahaha, thank you for your CC editor! Also, I know that candy is wonderful! I got some mini ones for Easter! :3 Thanks, again!**

**Piano player3- See, I updated for youuu! Also, good to know you changed it. Thanks!**

**Blackroses..thing001- I loved that line too, so sweet! :3 Also, I've never tried Hershey's Oreo drops, so I guess I'll have to. We'll see how the other gods decide. Thanks!**

**Thals- I loved those lines too! Also I agree that candy is amazing! Thanks for reviewing! :D**

**olympusgirl12- Thanks! I'm always thankful for lovers of my story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO! D:**

_Thalia's POV_

I felt like I got hit by a truck. I needed to feel safe, so naturally I thought of Nico. He cradled me in his arms like a small child, which I hate to admit that I loved. I eventually feel asleep as the pain ebbed away quickly.

"Thals, Thals, you got to wake up now." Nico cooed.

His voice was so gentle, so soft that I just wanted to fall asleep listening to him.

"Okay, now I'm serious; Percy saw a few monsters while he was running the perimeter." He said a bit more firm, but still as gentle as cotton.

I opened my eyes a crack and looked through my eye lashes and saw a canopy of trees overhead.

"Where are we?" I rasped, my voice was so dry and it cracked in between words.

"I'm guessing Clearfield, a town around five minutes from Du Bois." He answered.

He handed me a water bottle which I sipped slowly with great care.

"So, what's our plan of action?" I said, feeling almost one hundred percent better.

"Well since my car was totaled in the crash, and Annabeth's is a two passenger, Percy got his car shipped to a town fifteen minutes back."

"I finally get to see the, oh-so-famous, 'stang." I said rolling my eyes.

" Yup, he just left actually."

"Where's Annabeth?" I questioned.

"She's, um, using the bathroom." Nico said awkwardly.

"Is that behind a tree or something?" I said, failing to keep my laughter in.

He nodded slowly and said, "You know, Aphrodite came to us and healed you."

"What?" I said dumbfounded.

"Yeah, she said she would try to warn us, and get some other gods on our side to tip the scale." He justified.

"Wow, thanks, Aphrodite," I said gratefully, to no one in particular but hoping she'd heard.

"I really thought I was going to lose you for a second there." He said, putting his chin on my head and burying his nose in my hair.

"I'll never leave you alone." I said, turning around to face him.

"Una vita piena d'amore, può avere delle spine, ma una vita vuota di amore non avrà rose." He whispered in quick, fluent Italian, and then kissing my head.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"A life filled with love, may have some thorns, but a life empty of love won't have any roses. Bianca and my mom always used to tell me that when there were rough patches in our life." He said solemnly.

I gave him a small smile and a quick peck. I stood up to look for Annabeth, only to tumble right back down.

"You stood up too fast, let me help." Nico said, standing up and taking my hands.

He pulled me up slowly and set off to look for Annabeth. We found her digging around in her glove box, looking for something.

"Annabeth, what are you looking for?"

"It's got to be around here somewhere." She muttered.

"What are you looking for?" Nico said, "Maybe I can help."

"You mean _we_ can help." I said correcting him.

"I stand corrected, maybe _we_ can help." He said emphasizing the we and adding air quotes.

Annabeth just kept muttering to herself and shoveling around in her car. Oh well, at least I could say I tried. Nico took my hand and lead me back to the, I guess you could call it a campsite.

He grasped my hand and pulled me in closer. I stared deep into his eyes, suddenly seeing the lust that danced behind his pupil, filled with want.

He leaned closer and whispered, "I love you."

Then he kissed me with much enthusiasm and meaning with every second that passed. My head rested against a tree, as he leaned into me. His arms snuck around my waist while he added depth to the kiss. We kissed until I had to pull away for a breath. He chuckled a bit then buried his head against my neck. As his breath tickled my ear and I couldn't suppress a giggle.

"I love your laugh, it's like bells." He said moving his head from my ear to my forehead. Then he kissed my head just as I heard a car horn. Nico grabbed my hand and ran towards the car, dragging me with him.

"Gods, I don't think Percy's going anywhere." I said trying to slow him down.

It worked about as much telling a kid running to a candy store that there is a basket of vegetables right around the corner. I tripped over a tree root and Nico said, "To hell with this pulling you around crap."

He scooped me up and put me on his back and began to run. I was laughing with joy while bouncing around on his back. As we crashed through the trees and a dark blue 2011, Cobra Mustang with white racing stripes, came into view.

"Oh my fucking gods!" I screamed punching Nico's back.

"Hello, that's my perfectly tanned, toned, and handsome back you're punching!" Nico said in annoyance.

His cockiness was always a quality I loved about him. His confidence was irresistible.

"It's beautiful." I said in awe, my eyes glazing over.

"I know, I know, back off of Sheila, you'll _never_ get to drive her." Percy said, climbing out of his car and leaning against the shining hood.

Nico snickered as I sent Percy a glare.

"Yeah, that's what I said about Gwen. Where is she now, hm?" Nico muttered.

"That wasn't my fault!" I justified, for the sixth time.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know it was all _Lamia's_ fault. I will get that bitch for totaling my car." Nico said, glaring.

"Don't get all dark, angry, mysterious, and sexy on me. That's just not fair." I said.

He chuckled and his back shuddered. His laugh was so low and rumbling, "_Stop it Thalia, stop it."_ I thought to myself.

Annabeth came sprinting towards us screaming, "I found it!"

"Found what?" I said.

She skidded to a stop, flicked her eyes towards Percy, and then quickly said, "Nothing, nothing!"

I quirked an eyebrow and she just waved her hand. Nico set me down on the ground and walked over to Percy's car, then ran two fingers down the hood. Percy waked his hand off his car, and Nico jumped back.

"Jeez, man, what crawled up your ass?" Nico said agitated.

"Whatever," Percy muttered.

"I'm glad you agree with me. Maybe you're not as stupid as you look." Nico said, trying to get Percy to reply.

"Yup." Percy said shortly.

Nico's eyebrows crinkled as he began to think.

"Now he's thinking ladies and gentlemen, does it hurt?" Percy asked.

Nico just grunted and walked away from Percy.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were on your period." Nico said, sarcastically to Percy.

Percy sent Nico a death glare.

"Okay, completely serious now. What's bugging you?" Nico said, putting his arm around him.

"It's Annabeth, she's been completely avoiding me lately." Percy said solemnly, looking at the ground and shuffling his converse clad feet.

"Ah, relationship problems between the world's favorite couple?" I said with fake astonishment.

"Ha ha, but I'm serious." He said sarcastically.

"I know what you mean, she's been acting strange around us too lately." Nico said.

"I'll talk to her, maybe she'll tell me what's up." I said sincerely.

"Yeah I hope because in fifteen minutes we are leaving." Percy murmured, then headed back to pack up the campsite.

"Go help him, I need to talk to her alone." I said, pushing Nico in the direction Percy went.

He gave me a 'Why me?' look, then trailed behind Percy.

I quickly found Annabeth still looking around in her car.

"Annabeth, for gods' sake, what are you looking for?" I questioned.

She looked at me with watery eyes then the tears overflowed, and sent a few free. I rushed over to her and rubbed her back, whispering reassuring words.

"Annabeth, please tell me what's wrong."

"I lost it." She stated simply, sniffling.

"What did you lose?"

"Percy's anniversary present."

My eyes widened, "What did he get you?"

"A pendent," she said. This sent another few tears racing down her checks.

"Tell Percy, I'm sure he'll understand. He's worried about you, he thinks he did something wrong."

She sniffled, "He's such a good boyfriend, and I'll never deserve him."

At that moment Percy chooses that it's a good idea to walk out of hiding.

Annabeth's eyes widened as she hastily wiped the lone tear tracks from her eyes, "How much did you hear?"

"Enough." He said as he walked towards her, then wrapped his arms around her.

"It's okay Annie, we'll find it together. I don't know what I did to deserve you, but god knows I don't. You're so smart, beautiful, caring, strong, independent, and so much more. I'm just not." Percy said to her.

She gazed at him through her eyelashes and crashed her lips to his. I kept myself busy twiddling my thumbs and looking at the clouds, trying to stop from butting in on their moment. Finally I decided it was enough and coughed loudly.

They hastily separated and attempted to fix their disheveled clothes and hair. Annabeth sure was emotional lately. She was very strong, and barely flinched at horrible injuries. I waved it off as PMS or something.

Nico came into view and crashed all of the bags on the ground. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "What did I miss?"

"The world's favorite couple finally resolved their conflict. Just load up the bags." I stated.

He shrugged and opened the trunk. He made a confused face at the trunk and grabbed something inside. Nico held up a heart shaped, silver pendent, with emerald and sapphire stones, "Does this belong to anyone?"

Annabeth ran over to him and practically tackled Nico to the ground while snatching the pendant.

"I found it!" She screeched.

"Well, technically I found it." Nico said.

Annabeth sent him a death glare and he raised his hands in surrender. She quickly put it on and sighed in happiness.

"Well, now that that's settled, can we finally leave now?" I asked.

"Of course."

We all piled into Percy's Mustang and burned rubber down the highway.

"What about Annabeth's car?" Nico questioned.

"We decided to leave it there and come back for it on the way back. Hopefully no one sees it since it's concealed in the woods." Annabeth answered.

So then we drove.

And drove.

Then drove some more.

I must have shifted positions about fifty times in the last four hours. I started out sitting slouched in the bucket seats, then shifted to laying my head on Nico's shoulder, then to laying with my head on his lap.

Since the backseats of Mustangs aren't very roomy, I have to say, I wasn't very comfortable. Soon I heard my stomach growl.

"I _really _have a taste for Twinkies." I said, breaking the comfortable silence.

Percy flinched at the sound of my voice and pulled into a gas station somewhere in Indiana.

"Everyone— potty break while I pump gas, and while Thalia gets her Twinkies." Percy commanded.

"Yes, sir." I said, mockingly saluting him.

Annabeth and I shuffled into the gas station and surveyed the area. Nico decided he didn't need to use the wash room, and was now walking around the car stretching his legs. There was no attendant at the counter. That was sort of strange, but I could only guess he was in the back. There weren't any customers here anyways, and it didn't look like anyone was coming in soon.

Annabeth and I parted ways as she scuffled into the bathroom. I went to the back corner where they kept the Twinkies. I grabbed a package or two and heard tentative footsteps. I slowly turned around and saw the waiter from the diner a while back.

I let out a relieved sigh, then cracked a grin and said, "Dustin, what are you doing here?"

He gave a tight lipped smile, "I'd like to ask you the same question."

He gazed at me with hard ice blue eyes, which had a cold and calculating stare that certainly didn't match his relaxed demeanor.

My eyebrows creased from confusion. Something wasn't right, something was up.

Dustin pulled something from behind his back.

"Dustin, what are you doi-"

I never got to finish my sentence because then my world faded into a cold, cruel, dark world of darkness as I felt my body crash to the floor.

**Do you think Dustin is a demigod? If so, whose son? Favorite line and movie, por favor. :D**

**Review!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys, I'm super sorry I haven't been updating. I hope you'll forgive me, maybe? So much going on, and I had writers block. I know, I know, I left it on a cliffy, how could I get writers block? Well, I never knew what was going to happen after the cliffhanger, until I got some wonderful inspiration. Be sure to check out my other story, review!**

**Pokemonchen- You won't know till the next chapter. :D muhahahha! Thanks for reviewing! Keep reading.**

**Blackroses..thing001- Hm, maybe it is right, you'll see. Ahaha, I love those lines too! Thanks for reviewing and reading.**

**Nike- A guess of a different origin, maybe you're right. Thanks for reviewing! Keep it up!**

**Piano player3- Thanks, I read the story and reviewed, she'll get reviews in time. Thanks for reading**

**- So how did you like the other chapters? Thanks for reviewing!**

**XxSeLeNAxX- Thanks for reviewing! Keep reading!**

**KylaMarie123- Ahaha, ah Nico, ever sarcastic. I've never seen that movie, so I assume it's for reading and reviewing.**

**R&R**

_Nico's POV_

I was shuffling around the parking lot, trying unsuccessfully to stretch my legs.

That's when I heard the sirens.

I assumed that they were going to pass, and rush to an emergency far away from this gas station. They pulled into the gas station parking lot, and I was utterly confused. We were the only people here, and no one called the police. What if the attendant recognized us from the news, and then called the police? Oh, gods, we had to get out of here.

I dashed inside and pushed open the gas station door, then heard the little bell, signaling someone was here. There was no attendant at the counter, which I found strange, but didn't think much of it.

I heard some commotion near the back of the shop, so I hustled over there. Annabeth's hair was like a curtain covering the person who was a crumpled heap on the floor. I recognized the jeans and suddenly it dawned on me.

"Annabeth," I said shakily, "What's going on?"

Her head snapped around to face me; she had a black eye, and a split lip.

"Nico, the attendant called the cops; we need to get out of here." She said paranoid like a dog who'd been recently scolded.

"It's too late, they're already here. What happened to you? Is that Thalia on the ground?" I pushed her aside gently, and crouched on the floor next to her.

Thalia was passed out with bruises in the shape of hands on her neck, the right side of her face was so swollen it looked like a tomato. Blood was caked on her head and hands coming from, Zeus knows where.

I was completely numb, it took almost all of my being to utter simple words, and "Who did this?"

My knuckles were white, from being clenched in a fist. My heartbeat was so loud and fast in my ears, taking over my thoughts.

The police burst through the door and Annabeth regained her composure, "Maybe they won't recognize us. Play dumb."

Annabeth rushed over to the police and started to explain what had happened, "My friend, her boyfriend, and my boyfriend were on a road trip and decided to stop here for food, gas, and the restroom. My boyfriend and my friend's boyfriend stayed outside while my friend and I came in here. I used the restroom while she got Twinkies."

At this point one of the officers laughed and Annabeth gave him a stifling glare, "Why aren't any paramedics helping my friend? Don't interrupt me again, sir."

The officer decided not to argue, and went to get the paramedics as Annabeth continued, "Anyways, I was washing my hands and a man approached me. I asked him why he was in the lady's room, his response was to attack me and chain me to the toilet. I put up a fight; therefore, he punched me several times. I heard screaming, so I assume he was here for my friend not me, maybe even both of us."

I had to give Annabeth credit for explaining so composed and formal. I still felt like I was in a dream as they loaded Thalia into the ambulance. I even heard Percy yelling at someone to let him through, and I didn't even bat an eye.

It all seemed a blur as a police officer if I could please exit the scene. He guided me to a bench and made me sit down. Percy came over and started firing questions at me, where was Annabeth, what was going on, nothing seemed to matter.

I shakily stood up and looked at Percy with glazed eyes, opened my mouth to say something, then passed out in his arms.

I could still hear everything that was going on, I would hear things then it faded out, next thing I know I'm being shook around as someone laid me down on the hard concrete. A man was tapping my shoulders and asking if I could hear him.

It took immense effort but I managed to mumble yes.

"You're going into shock; we are going to take you to the hospital if you don't wake up before the next ambulance comes." The kind paramedic informed me.

Great, just great, I couldn't end up in the hospital, so I struggled to open my eyes.

"He's fine, he's opening his eyes, and someone get me some water and a blanket." The man shouted out orders.

I sat up slowly and the man wrapped a blanket around my shoulders, even though it was supposed to be warm, I was as cold as ice. He instructed me to sip the water then walked off. In the next ambulance I could see Annabeth being tended to; her legs dangled off the rear as they stitched up her lip and gave her an ice pack.

Percy came over and sat down on the ground next to me.

"Well, I see you don't react well in a crisis." He said in a matter of fact tone.

"No really? I'm the best in situations when the love of my live looks like she's near death." I muttered.

"We're going to leave for the hospital soon, you really scared me there Nico. You were all pale, cold as ice, even though you were sweating. Really freaked me out bro. Promise to never bail on me like that again?" He said, holding out his hand.

I shook it and he stood up, pulling me with him. We all climbed in the car and headed to the hospital in a deathly silence.

**Review! Tell me your favorite line and music artist(s)!**


	17. Chapter 17

**I'm backkkkkk! 102 reviews!**

**Pokemonchen- I've played dumb in many incidences. XD It is useful. Ahahaha, when you wrote "Ooohhh she pwn the officer! XD" In your review I laughed so hard! Thanks for reviewing!**

**Blackroses. .thing001- That was a funny line, also I see you're a country fan! Not many of those up where I live. Although I like country, not my favorite type of music. -.- this wasn't supposed to be a filler chapter, although now that I look at it, I see that it is. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**GreenDay3- I recongnize you from my other story! Nice to know someone follows both. 3 I like the same type of music, although mine is more classified as punk, although I think it's rock or alternative. Thanks for the compliment! I don't get that often enough. Thanks for your support, and keep reading and reviewing!**

**olympusgirl12- BIRDY! XD Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**LynnieLain- I've only mentioned hydron peroxide maybe three times in my story. Usually in these incidences they don't have pure clean water to disinfect with. A six percent dilution of hydrogen** **is useful for disinfecting cuts and to stop bleeding for relatively superficial cuts. Anyone with first aid should know that. I appreciate your concern though. **

**Mystoforce-(Chapter 14) Why thank you! :D Keep reading and reviewing!**

**Pandaisanumber- (Chapter 14) Well origionally I meant from my story, but your favorite line in general was interesting too. I have recently developed a liking for dark chocolate also! Especially with caramel, in small amounts. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Wisegirl08- I've done that plenty of times! Thanks for loving it! I'll try to add more percabeth in it. Keep reading and reviewing!**

**LoveGreenEyes001- You share my taste in music. Ahahaha, I get that a lot. :3 Oh gosh, you were writing this right next to me and I didn't even notice! -.- Thanks for editing, reading and reviewing!**

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**Wow, so many reviews 416 words on responses! Thanks guys!**

**Hey there readers! I just got out of school today, so that means more updates! *cue cheering* Sorry I haven't updated nearly as much as I should have, but we were just finishing things up at school. Wanted to go out with a bang, you know? We made it to the big three digits! Well anyways, thanks for sticking with me, and review!**

**Disclaimer- I don't own anything anyone else already does.**

_Percy's POV_

I was struggling to follow the ambulance, even though I was speeding. Everyone was quiet, which is rare for my group of friends. You know, with our ADHD and all. I glanced in the rear view mirror and saw Nico curled up, pushed against the wall with wide eyes.

His face started to contort, and then he made a guttural noise from the back of his throat. Silent tears ran down his face, as he grimaced. I was pretty sure he thought no one was watching, and then his eyes looked up into the rearview mirror. Our eyes locked, and I felt like I could feel every emotion that plagued his mind.

I was so entranced and absorbed that I ran onto the rumble strip on the side of the road. I jumped, and so did everyone else, a little and steered back onto the road.

Nico never cried. The only other time I've seen him cry was when he found out Bianca died. From then on he was emotionless, until he met Thalia. As sobs racked his body, Annabeth and I glanced at each other. I think we were both thinking how much he would be hurt if the same thing happened to Bianca as Thalia. He would never be the same. Annabeth reached her hand over to me so I took it and intertwined our fingers and squeezed.

I looked into the mirror again and I didn't like what I saw. I think a thought crossed his mind momentarily because fire now ignited in his eyes. He quickly sat up straight and shrugged of the blanket. His knuckles were white as I turned my attention back to the road.

We arrived at the hospital within a few more minutes, and I quickly found a parking spot. We all scrambled to get out of the car, and then rushed through the door. Nico went up to the counter and asked what room Thalia was in.

"I'm sorry, sir, they're not allowing visitors." The women said with no emotion what so ever.

"Who are they?" Nico said, glowering. His voice got low and fire caught in his eyes.

The women stared and responded in a timid voice, "I'm not allowed to say surely, but I would assume the doctors."

Nico slammed his hands down on the countertop and swore. He flashed past us and made quite a scene walking out the doors, sending them swinging on their hinges. I debated going after him, but before I had a chance to make a solid decision he walked through the door at a brisk pace.

He walked straight up to Annabeth and me.

"Who did this?" He asked, more like demanded.

"I'm not completely sure, Nico," Annabeth responded tentatively.

Nico walked closer to Annabeth, pushing her back towards the wall. Fire danced in his pupils as the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. The potted plants started to wilt, and the oxygen felt like it was being sucked into a vacuum.

"Annabeth, don't test me."

"Nico we decided that it would be best that yo-"

Suddenly, she stopped and stared. Annabeth's gray eyes were wide and frightened as they darted around looking at things that didn't exist. What was Nico doing? Sure Annabeth knew, but we came to the decision that he shouldn't know right now. He would never hurt Annabeth; she was like a sister to him.

"Nico, I know you're doing this! Stop! Make it go away! You're scaring me! Nico!" Annabeth screamed as she backed into a corner, and slid down the wall.

Annabeth was usually a strong person; she usually would've whipped out her dagger and mowed down anyone who messed with her. I suppose Nico was messing with her deepest and darkest fears, and she felt powerless to that.

I put my hand on his shoulder firmly and squeezed. He's done that to me many times when my powers get out of hand. By the way, they have probley gotten out of hand more than Nico's.

Nico seemed to snap back into reality at her voice screaming at him, and my hand on his shoulder. He ran over to her trying to express how sorry he was. Annabeth was sobbing, but I stayed out of this whole thing because they needed to work it out themselves. Nico took her in him arms and started rocking her as tears streamed down his face.

He was whispering, but I could still hear him, "I'm so sorry, I'm just like my father. I lost control, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have all this power if I can't control it, dammit!"

He was angrier at himself than I was at him. I was pretty pissed though. I understood from some point of view. I decided to forgive him. Nico kissed Annabeth's head and left his lips there when he said, "I'd never hurt you. Never."

I heard the click-clack of heels just behind me so I turned around. I was fairly removed during this whole ordeal so I think Nico and Annabeth were surprised to see me move.

The first thing I noticed about the women was that she had a very angular, severe face structure. You could see the arrangement of her high cheekbones, and her long nose. It might've made some people look ugly, but she had an untraditional beauty about her. The fact that she pulled her blond hair into a tight bun, which added to her angular look, screamed that the women had confidence.

The second thing that I noticed was that she was wearing a white lab coat. She was the doctor.

"Nico di Angelo?"

**I'm sorry it was SO short, I just thought that was a good place to end it, and there wouldn't be a good spot for a while if I hadn't ended it there. I love my reviewers sooo much! We made it to the three digits. Tell me your absolute favorite book/series besides the Heroes of Olympus, or Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or frankly anything by Rick. Oh, and also your favorite line of this chapter. **

**R&R**


	18. Chapter 18

**Pokemonchen- Here's the next chapter! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**LoveGreenEyes001- Thank you! Ahhaha, the N in Nico has a ~ on top of it. I know! He was SO emotional! Thanks for editing and reviewing.**

**Piano player3- Thank you very much! I tried to read the secret books when I was in fifth grade, didn't turn out too well. I love the Hunger Games as well. I love that line. Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

**KylaMarie123- Oh my gosh, I can't believe you thought about that when you had no sleep! Thanks for squeling quietly like a fan girl. I don't like to play favorites either ;D. Thanks for the wonderful review and keep reading!**

**crazycousinsdoubleAduo- Yes, much emotion. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!**

**FaNgIrL- Thanks for the CC! I'll try to make chapters longer. I'm trying to update more! I promise. Thanks for reading!**

**Anamalia0207 (Chapter 3)- Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Diamondgirl3- Thank you very much! I love Thalia too. ;D**

**Katnissxx- Thank you! I like the Hunger Games.**

**Lightning-AND'Death (Chapter 12)- I like that line too. I think like that often. Wait did that become your favorite line fast? Or was fast your favorite line? Sorry I'm a little slow. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Lightning-AND'Death (Chapter 16)-You like the same music groups as me! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Jade Night- Thanks very much! Keep reading.**

**percabethrules123- Cool taste in music. I like the favorite lines. ;) Thanks!**

**Hina Daydreamer- Oh my gosh, thought this would be a bad review because of the way it starts out. Thanks so much! Sometimes I want to live in my fan fiction too. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!**

**Sorry guys, I'll really try to update more, but I have a new "job" that takes up a lot of my time. I sent this to my editor on Sunday, but she hasn't had time to look at it. She told me to try to correct my grammer as best as I can today. So the grammer in this chapter is horrible. Please don't be too hard on me. Thanks again for reading and reviewing!**

**Disclaimer- I own NOTHING**

_Percy's POV_

"_Nico di Angelo"_

Nico snapped his head towards the doctor with wide eyes. He let go of Annabeth and scrambled to his feet.

"Is she okay?" He asked with such intensity that I thought he was going to run up to the doctor and shake the answer out of her

"First of all, my name is-"The doctor started to say with a firm tone, but Nico interrupted her.

"I don't give a shit what your name is," Nico said slowly, "I want some answers."

The doctor shot him a stony glare with her ice blue eyes, "I was getting to that. She has some brain swelling among the other injuries. That is what really concerns me."

"Are we allowed to see her?" Annabeth asked softly, looking at the ground.

"I don't see why not, but-"

No one got to her what else she was going to say because we all practically ran in the other direction.

"Wait, what's her room number?" Annabeth asked, stopping in her tracks.

We wheeled around and went to the front desk again.

"What's Thalia Grace's room number?" Annabeth asked as politely as possible.

"Room 307, third floor." A different emotionless lady said.

We decided to take the stairs, so we all practically took two at a time. We rounded corner, after corner, before finally finding the correct room. Nico skidded to a stop and stared at the door. I rammed into him and he stumbled a little.  
>"What are you waiting for?" I asked frustrated.<p>

"I'm afraid okay! I'm afraid of what's on the other side of that door. I don't know if I can take it." He said looking at me with glassy dark eyes.

"Nico, you're strong. Everything will turn out fine." Annabeth said in a reassuring tone, wrapping her arms around him.

He shook his head quickly and turned back towards the door.

"No matter what happens we'll face it together."

_Annabeth's POV_

I held Percy's hand and squeezed as Nico slowly turned the door knob with a soft click that echoed in the still silence.

The first thing I saw over Percy's broad shoulder was a _large _glass window that bright, white light bleed into the room through. I heard Nico's breath hitch as he saw Thalia. I shoved Percy to the side who jerked like a ragdoll.

At the sight of my strong, beautiful, powerful best friend hooked up to wires and tubes looking absolutely defeated, I think we all just broke. My eyes widened as tears flooded my eyes and just came crashing down, there was nothing I could do to stop it. I gasped for air as my sobs turned into cries of pain and sorrow.

Nico slowly fell to his knees and crumpled. His mouth fell open and his expression of such raw pain made me stumble backwards.

Percy seemed to get as angry as a charging bull, the wind seemed to pick up and with it came to smell of sea salt and rumbling of the ground.

"I'm going to find that bastard and I'm going to kill him."

_Nico's POV_

Everything else faded into the back ground and all I saw was her.

She was hooked up to wires, and bruises covered seventy percent of her skin that was visible. I tried to be strong and not let it affect me. I know that's what she would do if I she was in my situation.

Right before Percy decided to run out of the room I darted over there and grabbed his shoulder with a firm grip.

"I will be getting my revenge, but now it's just not worth it." I said stonily.

Percy nodded and fell into a chair, then stared out the large window. Annabeth's sobs had quieted and I could tell she was reassuring herself in her mind that everything would turn out fine, it always does.

It was completely silent in the room besides the repetitive beeping of the heart monitor. I decided to ask the question that had been running through my mind for a while.

"Could we heal her? Would nectar help? Maybe that snake skin?"

"They snake skin couldn't work from what I know. It's used to kill illnesses like the common cold. Thalia doesn't have an illness that I'm aware of." Annabeth said, sniffling.

I sighed and turned back to Thalia's face. It still managed to look beautiful stitched up, bandaged, and bruised.

The light outside that bled into the room got brighter and brighter. It got warmer too. I adjusted the collar of my shirt just as someone decided to pop in.

"Apollo, lord of the sun, at your service." He said flashing his blinding white smile.

Annabeth's eyes widened, "You're going to help us?"

"You bet your buttons I'm going to help you out. Hades, Aphrodite, and I are trying to plan an attack on the others if nothing can be negotiated about your fate."

"We're actually on our way to Utah to try to find something that will keep us undetected by the gods." I added.

"Well you little warriors better hurry up; Zeus is frustrated and is thinking about smiting you himself. Although I don't think he is able to kill his daughter with his own hand. It's easier just to tell someone else to do it for him. Less heart aches for him." Apollo mentioned.

"Well we need to be in Utah in three days, so we don't really have time for her to heal naturally, so would you, urm, work your weird voodoo magic?" I asked hesitantly.

"Will do, everyone leaves though."

"Why?" I questioned trying to keep from glaring protectively.

"No need to be the annoyingly overprotective boyfriend, I'm here to help hotshot." Apollo said sarcastically.

Percy snickered; I sent him a glare and walked out slowly with one last glance toward Thalia. The others followed suit and Percy closed the door behind him as he left.

I leaned against the door frame with my arms crossed and my left leg bent, with my foot on the edge of the door. Annabeth sat on the floor her back against the wall taping out William Tell Overture with her fingers. Percy sat next to her and took her hand abruptly as the tapping stopped. He held it in a tight grip and kissed the top of her head and turned her into him, wrapping her in his arms.

Soon Apollo came out, shutting the door softly behind him, "She should be up in a few minutes; she's back in shape tip top shape, maybe even better than before."

He flashed us all a wink then disappeared in blinding white light, as we all covered our eyes. There was a pause where no one moved or said anything. I broke that weird silence, pause type thing, and opened the door slowly. Everyone else followed suit.

Her skin was once again flawless, and even her hair looked freshly brushed. I kissed her forehead then sat down in the chair next to her bed. I held her hand gently hoping she never woke up. That's the opposite of what I was hoping for this whole time, but she looked so peaceful and beautiful while she slept.

I squeezed her hand surprisingly I felt a squeeze back, much softer than mine, but still a squeeze. She shrugged her shoulder then sighed almost. We all stood up from our positions and looked over her face. Her eyelids fluttered open then looked at us in surprise.

Her eyes had once again regained that bright sparkle of youth as she broke into a grin.

"Oh my gods." I said half sighing in relief, while blinking back tears rapidly.

I smiled while breathing through my nose heavily as I soon broke into a chuckle. Everyone else had broad grins on their faces and started to laugh too.

Thalia cleared her throat and proclaimed, "Let's get this show on the road."

**Please review and tell me your favorite line from this chapter. Maybe your favorite fan fiction? Boy is that a hard question.**

**R&R**


	19. Chapter 19

**Sorry guys, it's short and I haven't updated in a while, but please forgive me! My editor is **_**extremely **_**busy so I had to do the best I could with grammer, which isn't very well. Oh well. I thank you all **_**soooo **_**much. I've come so far with this story looking back I never even thought I would get so much praise. **

**Diamondgirl3- I've actually never read the entire HP series I only read the first two then stopped. I know there's a lot of HP fans out there and I would recommend those stories. You have no Idea how much that means to me. There's some **_**really**__**great**_** PJ fics out there and mine is your favorite! Thanks much and keep reviewing.**

**TheHelper3440- OH YES! ;D keep reading!  
>Pokemonchen- You're right that is funny! Where do I come up with these things? Thanks for reading and reviewing!<strong>

**KylaMarie123- I should stop asking about favorites, it's so hard! Keep being the wonderful fan girl you are! Luv ya! ;) Keep fan girling, reading, and reviewing!**

**Loony-Lightning-Lion- I am going to keep writing! Thanks much for reading and reviewing!**

**Julianna54321- I'm going to ask a question releated to that! My ear lobes are soft too! What's your secret? Thanks a lot!**

**purplebutterfly12- Here is the next chapter! Yay! Thank you! **

**crazycousinsdoubleAduo- I'm not completely sure, I don't really have a plan for this story. I just sit down and write, whatever comes out comes out. I know, I just think that that's how it truly should be. If they were happy she was in the hospital that wouldn't be very good! Thanks very much!**

**Lightning-AND'Death (chapter 12)- I understand now! Thanks for clearing that up! **

**Lightning-AND'Death- (Chapter 18)- Thanks so much! Please keep reading and reviewing. I'm so glad I'm one of your favorite authors. Keep reading and reviewing!**

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"_Let's get this show on the road."_

_Nico's POV_

I still couldn't stop smiling as Thalia broke into a wide grin and asked us why we kept staring, she was fine.

To demonstrate she sat up slowly, stretched then swung her legs so they were touching the sterile linoleum floor. She stood up slowly and wobbled on her feet. I held her arm as I watched her.

"You're probably a little weak; I mean you're not a super machine." I said, smirking.

"I'm fine," she insisted, "Now get out of this room so I can change. I feel so naked in this hospital gown."

"Are you sure? I could just you know, stand in the corner if you really want me to." I asked hesitantly, not fully comfortable with leaving her alone. We all know how well that's worked out so far.

"Just because I was taken by surprise once or twice doesn't mean I can't fend for myself." She snapped.

I was taken aback and the grin I previously had was quickly disappeared from my face.

She sighed running her hands through her hair, "I'm sorry, but after just one or two incidents no one thinks I'm capable of getting dressed without someone in the room. I'm a hero of Olympus for crap's sake. I'm also daughter of Zeus, ex-hunter of Artemis, amongst many other things."

Annabeth decided to speak as soon as the words left Thalia's mouth, "One or two _very serious _accidents. Nico cares about you, and wants to protect you. If only you could've _seen _him while everything was going on. He was a nervous wreck. I don't blame him, honestly. Now we're going to wait right outside this door until you come out."

Thalia's mouth opened and closed like she was going to say something, and her eyes begged for forgiveness. I sent her a sidelong glance and slowly turned and walked out, shutting the door softly, letting the door click behind me.

I ran a rough hand down the side of my face stretching it, and willing for some of the stress to go away.

"Don't worry Nico; it'll all turn out fine in the end." Percy said, trying to help.

I obviously didn't see that he was being sincere and something about that comment set me off. I turned on him, eyes blazing.

"What makes you think it'll turn out fine, hm? When does anything in my life turn out fine? That's right, nothing! What did I ever do to deserve this?" I rambled frustrated, getting in his face.

He shoved me backwards his eyes glowing, "I always try to help you, and this is what I get in return? I sick and tired of dealing with your petty little problems! Thalia doesn't love me! What ever shall I do?" He yelled mocking me, "Just because you've got some shit going on doesn't give you the right to be a total ass!"

My eyes got wide as I sucked in a large breath. I lost it and smashed my fist on the floor, the tile cracking around it. It suddenly got frigidly cold and seemed that all color was sucked out of it. I could almost comprehend what Annabeth was screaming about in the back ground, but I decided not to care.

It was harder to summon my powers because we were three floors off the ground. I didn't even care as I dug the balls of my feet into the ground, my toes curling in my shoes. I ran full speed towards Percy, my black jacket trailing behind me, as I rammed into him and sent him flying into the wall.

I saw Annabeth pulling him up while holding him back at the same time. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and snapped around quickly ready to bowl down anyone in my path.

I was meet with electric blue eyes in the midst of the muted color and sound.

"-calm down, Nico. You're fine. Control it, you know how." I heard bits and pieces of what she was saying.

I felt completely and utterly drained as my eyes drooped, and my arms and legs fell limp as I crashed to the floor. I sat up groaning and scooting to lean on the wall. Someone shoved a canteen in my mouth and nectar trickled down my throat.

I coughed and sputtered thrashing, but soon I felt normal again. Completely guilty and ashamed, but normal never the less, I didn't mean to take everything out on Percy he was just the only available target.

"Well it's obvious he's a wreck, just going off on everyone like that." I vaguely heard Annabeth say.

I tuned in to listen to their conversation.

"He's just dealing with some tuff stuff now. I'm completely better and will be there for him always." Thalia said immediately coming to my defense

"What if it doesn't get better? I can't deal with it anymore; everyone's become his punching bag. He lets out his stress on everyone else. I have problems just like him." Percy said, sighing.

I could feel anger welling up but it was then pushed back by an overwhelming sense of abandonment and bitterness. My face twisted up into a scowl as I remembered that feeling. I absolutely _hated _it. I felt it too much in my childhood. Bianca leaving me for the hunters, wondering where my dad was, being left in a casino to age slowly, and also being an outcast at everything I did. Even when I thought I found my family at camp half-blood I was even and outcast there.

I pushed up the wall and took one last look at my friends, my family, my everything. They didn't deserve this. I would find a way to get to Utah on my own. I would repay them eventually, but now I was riding myself from them.

I felt a nagging pull in the back of my mind. How could I just leave them? Leave the love of my life? If something happened and I wasn't there, how would I live with myself?

The bad weighed out the good in the end as it always does in my mind. After all I was doing this for them. They deserved to not look after me as I became more and more of a burden. They would do better without me. I didn't know who I was trying to convince, myself or them?

Their backs were to me as they were two absorbed in their conversation to notice me as I straightened my jacket and turned to the door in front of me. I was leaving. For good.

**Please review! I want at least 12 reviews before updating. Thanks! Also what's your favorite feature/body part?**

**R&R**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey guys! Thanks for all your reviews; I'm going to be working on this story more than my other story. So for all of you who read my other story, it's essentially on hold for this story. I will probably start the next chapter for that story after I publish this one. Thanks again!**

**PJOBestfan29- I updated ;) Thanks a lot for your review. **

**Julianna54321- Thanks Also I did PM you and you didn't tell me your 'big secret', which I'm fine with. Try to cut back on the sugar, I'm kidding. Sugar makes things exciting. Thanks so much **

**Guest- Aw, that means so much to me! If you are 13 or older and frequently visit fan fiction then I think you should get an account. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Diamondgirl3- I know! ;( Thanks for continuing to read and review!**

**XxXTratie-and-Thalico-4everXxX- Thalia seems to always be the one to understand him, I know. I think it's because they're so alike in many ways. Percy and Annabeth seem to be the complete opposite of them. We'll see what Nico does. Thanks for your blessing and your review!**

**KylaMarie123- We'll see if he comes back ;) I love that line too. Omg! I'm a girl and been working on my abs too! It's like one of my goals. How'd you get them? Thanks much for fan girling and reading! Luv ya too!**

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**Lightning-AND'Death- Thanks! I try to make good descriptions. It's probably the foundation of my writing besides witty and sarcastic remarks. Thanks much! Keep reading, writing, and reviewing.**

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**Daughterofapollo- Well here's the next chapter for you . I also love eyes! Mine are a peculiar gray blue. They change from time to time. Keep reading and reviewing!**

**Assylam- Thanks! He's my favorite character, so he won't disappear completely from the story, if you get my drift ;) I did use that. Surprised you were the first to catch it. Thanks much!**

**livelaughlove 20- Thanks! I hope so too! Thanks!**

**Shadowofthemoonxx- Thanks! I love those too! Keep reading and reviewing!**

**0.0 (Chapter 3) - It was a cliffy! I'm just going to say thanks SO much for all of your reviews from various chapters!**

**0.0 (Chapter 4) - What's life without some cheesiness!**

**Iturnedninetoday- If you just turned 9 today I would advise you not to read my story. It's clearly rated T for teen. Not T for 9 year olds. But it's your choice to read this not mine; I never made you read it. Thanks I guess…**

**0.0 (Chapter 14) - Ah sweetness….**

**0.0 (Chapter 16) - That seems to be said a lot in this story. Ha ha. **

**0.0 (Chapter 18) - More sweetness! Thanks again for your various reviews! Keep reading and reviewing!**

**KimyChanga- Haha, I love your username/pen name! Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

**lizziekitty001- Ahhh your dinosaur computer…. Thanks! I like being able to step into the characters shoes, that's why it's harder for me to write in Percy and Annabeth's POV. I'm more alike Thalia and Nico than them in my opinion. Note to self- work on description, okay. Thanks! I try. I know! Teen wolf inspired me a bit in this chapter, hehe. Yay! I'm horrible at grammar, thank god for spell and grammar check. I miss you beta-ing me too! Hopefully when summer schools over you'll have a little bit more time? Thanks and PONYBOY! :D Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold. D: Johnny! I got to watch the full version of that movie, even though the book's obviously better. Aww, I don't have fans! You're the one who introduced me to writing! Hyper active imagination, comes with the adrenaline disorder , I guess it could be useful at times. Luv ya! Thanks for your long review! I wrote you a REALLY long reply **

**LizziDaughterOfHades- Yes, sadly . I updated, thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Guest- Aw, it's a bunny c: Thanks! Keep reading and reviewing!**

**Donakiko- Haha, I've always liked eyes too. Thanks so much for reviewing!**

**Guest- Thanks from the bottom of my heart! I love when people compliment my story, but I love it even more when people compliment my writing! Thanks much, keep reading and reviewing!**

**Whoa, lots of reviews for this chapter, thanks a lot guys! Can we get more next chapter? Maybe 20 reviews? Well time for the story.**

_Thalia's POV_

"I doubt that you have as many problems as Nico's had his entire live. I mean sure your daddy was never around, you had the fate of Olympus on your shoulders, the gods are hunting you down, blah blah. Stack up Nico's life problems next to yours. Now your then savior of Olympus, the popular hero, and you've got one of the most sought after girls in Camp Half-blood, the only problem you have now is being hunted down. Nico has that too, with all of his past problems, and my weird messed up episodes. So back off, and think." I said as defensively as a mother bear.

Percy's jaw dropped, to the ugly tile floor below him. I don't think anyone's talked down to him in a while.

Annabeth sighed and ran her thin fingers through her curly, blond, hair, "I guess you're right, where's Nico? Percy and I should apologize to him because he probably heard."

"What do you mean? He's right th-" I turned around to where Nico was previously sitting five minutes ago against the wall.

My eyebrows furrowed. Maybe he went to lie down in my room. I sped walked to my room with Percy and Annabeth behind me. They were holding hands and his arm was around her shoulders and hers around his waist. This made me want to find Nico even more.

I shoved open the door to my previous room. There lying on the bed was the rest of my belongings, not what I was looking for. My eyes squinted and I looked to the bathroom in my room. Not there either. Where could he have gone? Maybe down to the cafeteria for some food, he didn't like hospital food much though. It was worth a shot.

I sent Percy and Annabeth a sidelong glance and looked at their worried expressions. Which made me a little worried, but my face was covered with a mask of confusion. I went to a fork in the hallway and squinted as I struggled to read the sign. The letters were completely moved around because of my severe dyslexia.

I looked at the little symbols instead. A fork and knife were next to each other. I deciphered that it the cafeteria was on the ground floor.

"Thalia, you really need to try to work out the words, instead of taking the shortcut of symbols." Annabeth scolded.

"I'll be sure to work on that in my spare time." I said hastily.

I weaved through the people to the elevator, dodging wheel chairs, and gurneys. I pressed the down button with the arrow on it.

I bounced my leg up and down waiting forever for the stupid elevator to climb a measly three floors. I fiddled with my necklace and a ding sounded as the elevator doors opened and throng of people emptied out.  
>We squeezed in with a crowd of other hospital goers, including nurses, and sobbing relatives. A middle aged man with a briefcase asked what floor, and I curtly told him first. I backed into a good looking teenage guy, who probably wasn't older than eighteen, who decided that it was a good idea to squeeze my ass.<p>

I gasped and turned around winding up for a good punch to the jaw when Percy beat me to it.

"What do you think you're doing?" He yelled towering over the tan guy's face.

The blond was grimacing with his hands on his face, and then pointed to Annabeth, "I thought the one over there was your girlfriend."

"She is. What's your point?" Percy said defensively.

My upper lip was twisted up in a look of disgust and rage when the doors opened and the guy bolted through them then took a left hand turn.

"Why I ought to-"I cut him off holding up my hand.

"Forget about it." I said missing Nico more than ever. I desperately wanted someone to hold me in their arms and tell me the guy was just an over confident jerk.

We took a left turn before the elevator doors closed and headed towards the cafeteria. I pushed the double doors open and looked through the crowd. He wasn't here either; I looked toward Percy and Annabeth with a look of desperation. Waiting for them to tell me that he was here in this hospital somewhere, but instead I was met with green and gray eyes full of immense worry.

"Where could he be? He was here just fifteen minutes ago!" I said turning frustrated.

Percy's eyes light up with the presence of a rare idea forming in his mind.

"Let me hear it." I said motioning for him to spit it out.

"We could find a way to IM him, and it'll show his location and we can try to talk to him." Percy said in a tone of obviousness.

"That's the best idea yet!" Annabeth said grinning and pulling him in for a kiss.

My shoulders dropped and my posture sagged. I guess knowledge turns Annabeth on, but then why would she be in love with a seaweed brain? I shoved that thought out of my mind and started to search for a bathroom. Some rude lady sped walked past me and practically shoved me against the wall with her shoulder.

I put my face in my hands and let out a muffled cry of frustration. I needed him; I haven't felt his lips on mine for the longest time. It felt like forever but It's really only been a few days. Just to feel his embrace and take in the scent of death, leather, and pine needles that came along with him. I probably was being over dramatic, but everything about him plagued my mind. His touch, his smell, the sound of his voice, his smile, everything about him was perfect to me.

After just going through that incident I wanted him more than ever, the experience came flooding back to me.

_I woke up quickly being dragged across the parking lot in the back of the gas station. I was utterly weak, but I thrashed and withered and eventually broke free of Dustin's hold. I could see the van he was trying to lug me to out of the corner of my eye and my knees wobbled as I struggled to my feet. I groaned and rolled my shoulders and took off running. _

_Thalia Grace never ran from a fight, but right then I didn't think I was the regular Thalia Grace, so I didn't act like her. Thalia Grace was rarely afraid, but at that moment I was terrified. I turned back losing speed as I saw Dustin right behind me with a cruel and menacing look in his cold, blue eyes. _

_I was weak so I slowed to a jog as I got closer to the back door. Dustin barreled toward me and tackled me to the ground. My head clonked on the hard pavement as he started to punch the Hades out of me, I raised my bruised forearms to shield the blows. I grabbed a good sized loose chunk of rock from the loosened part of the pavement, then I wacked the back of his head with as much strength that I could muster out of my weakened body._

_He snarled then climbed to his feet before tying my arms above my head with rope. I clenched my hands into fists then brought my knees to my chin and rocketed up off the ground. My hands hit Dustin's hard jaw and he screamed and stumbled backwards. I resumed running towards the gas station when I got desperately close to the door when Dustin grabbed my ankle and I crashed down to the pavement again. _

_I kicked his face with my boot then he took his hands off my ankle to put his hands on his face. I stumbled to my feet and opened the door to the gas station. _

_Dustin came up behind me with a larger chunk of rock and slugged my head with it. I slowly crumpled to the ground and the world faded slowly. I was vaguely aware of the sound of sirens, but I didn't care because then everything went completely mute and I was sucked into a cold, dark world of darkness_

"Thalia, Thalia, Thalia! We found the bathroom!" Annabeth said pointing to the left.

I looked up and saw the restrooms a couple feet away. I blinked and walked towards them.

"Percy, you stay out here unless you want a bunch of ladies waking you with their purses calling you a pervert." I said directing him to bench a few feet away.

"I'm good; I'll just sit down and wait. Wait, why do you guys get to IM him?"

"Because there are more females here, and Thalia's his girlfriend. Now sit your ass down and wait." Annabeth said walking into the bathroom dragging me with her.

Thankfully there were only two old women cackling together, while putting on way too much makeup on in the mirror. I gave them both my best death glare and they shuffled out quite quickly.

""O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering, Nico Di Angelo, location, unknown." Annabeth said, taking a large pause after before stating his location.

Soon we saw a tall guy in a black hoodie, zipped up and the hood thrown over his head. He was walking quite briskly with his back to us. I'd know those boots anywhere that was Nico.

As he crossed a busy street I tried calling his name, "Nico! Nico, turn around!"

He either was ignoring me or couldn't hear me, I was hoping for the later. Annabeth quickly ran her hand through the image.

"What did you do th-" I was cut off by an old woman shuffling her penny loafer clad feet through the door, then into a stall.

Annabeth looked at me with wide eyes and rose her eyebrows in an, 'I did you a favor look.' She grabbed my forearm and dragged me out of the bathroom.

Don't worry, I looked at the street sign when he crossed it, and also noted a few landmarks." Annabeth said, always ever observant. When I, like an idiot, just stood there, screaming, and trying to get his attention.

"Let's go get him." Percy said, appearing out of nowhere with kind smile spread across his face.

"Yeah, let's do this."

_Nico's POV (what you've all been waiting for.)_

I quickly weaved through the small crowds with my expert New York crowd navigating skills, heading for the town's train station. I figured an airplane was out of the question, and I definitely didn't have enough money for that. I'm sure I could convince someone to let me on that train without a ticket, if you know what I mean.

Soon I heard someone vaguely like Thalia calling my name. I tensed and ground my teeth to stop myself from turning around.

"_Don't turn around, just keep walking. You're probably just hearing things."_

Picking up the pace I crossed the street almost knocking a business man into a newspaper dispenser. I couldn't help it anymore; I turned around looking for Thalia, or anyone that looked familiar.

All I was meet with were nameless, ordinary, people looking everywhere but me.

**Thanks so much for reading! Sorry for my grammar mistakes, my beta has been really busy and hasn't had time to check my stories. Tell me what your guys' favorite celebrity is! Please review!**

**R&R**


	21. Chapter 21

_If white is every color combined, and black is the absence of color, shouldn't we be painting on a black canvas?_

**That's been on my mind lately, I don't really know how that came to mind, but tell me your thoughts on it. I'm sorry again for not updating, there isn't really an excuse for it, but I'll give you one anyways. School started a week ago, my father's been in the hospital, and overall I haven't been in much of a writing mood. Surprisingly today I am. So I thank you all for taking the time to read and review my story. It means a lot to me and always will. So on to the story and the thanks. **

**LizziDaughterOfHades- Yes he is, continue reading to find out if he stays gone. ;D Ha ha, that made my day. :) **

**crazycousinsdoubleAduo- Thank you! I'm sorry it took me a while to update. :(**

**Donakiko- I think I agree with you on some levels, besides a select few. I'd like to meet her, I'm not the biggest fan of her music, but she seems very genuine. Also thanks much for reading and reviewing.**

**XxXTratie-and-Thalico-4everXxX- Yes Thalico forever! :D Thanks for loving it, and even just for reading it. :)**

**PJOBestfan29- I'm also a big fan of 1D, I also like Selena Gomez, but I can't say the same for some of your other favorite celebrities. So don't hate me. :) Thanks, but do you mean wait much longer?**

**1ce-in-Forever12- I'm in love with suspense, can you tell? Hah, it's funny because I haven't been using a Beta lately, so I'm learning to correct my own mistakes. Thanks!**

**Pokemonchen- Really and truly? Okay, I can respect that. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Assylam- Thank you! I'm the same way, so many to pick from! Continue to read and review please!**

**BlueBerrySourStraps- Thanks so much! For following me and favoriting my stories! I've put the others on hold for this one! Thanks much! I never really had much of a planned out plot, it's just what comes to me when I sit down and write! Keep reading and reviewing!**

**SummerSpirit18- I do to! Even though I'm the writer, hah. Thanks much!**

**KylaMarie123- Whoops! No I'm sorry for misreading! I wish I had abs too ;) Hah, I know it's a long little speech. (That's a contradiction right there.) Thanks for never giving up on my story! **

**GreenDayIsBOSS- I see that, me too. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Lightning-AND'Death- Hah! I can't act either, and they save me too! Patience isn't my thing either, thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Lucia- Here's the next part! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**BeautifulLotus- Here's some more… hah. Thanks much**

**Thalico and Percabeth FTW- I will keep writing! Thanks for reading, reviewing, and loving it.**

**germanprincessnini- I didn't post soon exactly, sorry for the wait! Thanks a lot!**

**Guest- Updated! Thanks for the review.**

**edgar0123- hah, here's the next one, more suspense at the end too! ;)**

_Nico's POV_

After practically running to the train station because I got that odd feeling again, I tried to map out a plan. Surveying the room I saw every type of person, from an old and wobbly grandmother, to a screaming toddler having a temper tantrum. It should be easy to find a way on that train with all this chaos going on.

I decided to go the easy route, although I don't use them much, my mad seducing skills may come in handy today. I sure wasn't an Aphrodite girl, with crazy charm speaking, but I could get a job done.

I scanned the ticket counters looking for an easy target.

A big, burly woman, who strangely reminded me of Clarisse, occupied the first counter. Nope, that's not going to work, unless I wanted to be dragged out of here by my ear, which Clarisse has done before.

A frail old man inhabited the second counter looked pretty caring to me. I couldn't seduce him, but he shouldn't be hard to convince. Until he looked up and I saw his eyes, they were cold as ice, and calculating to the last detail. Obviously not that counter either.

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! At the third counter was a bottle blond in her twenties, leaning over to present her cleavage to some unsuspecting guy about my age, while topping it off with some horribly cliché eyelash batting. Her fake eyelashes fluttered clumsily, which made her look like she was trying to get something out of her squished brown eyes.

The poor guy just shook his head and walked away, luckily for me. My window of opportunity had presented itself. I pulled on my reflective aviator sunglasses, and sauntered over there. I watched her head cock as if she was surveying meat. Obviously she was satisfied with what she saw as she waved me over discreetly.

I leaned over the counter close enough to her, that I could smell her sickly sweet perfume. Thalia would _never_ wear a scent like that; I missed her clean linen body lotion, and her mint shampoo. I subtly grimaced and flicked my bangs dramatically out of my eyes.

"How 'bout you get me a ticket to Utah, and when I come back I'll give you something in return." I said winking obnoxiously after.

She leaned in even closer, "How do I know you'll repay me?"

"I'll give you something that I absolutely have to come back for." I said making up an excuse quickly.

"Like?" She said tilting her gaudy head to the side.

"I'll give you," I said pausing, thinking, "my ID."

I kept a fake ID in my wallet, and obviously this girl isn't smart enough to tell it's fake.

Handing over my ID, I saw her terribly grown-out, fake nails. I hastily reeled my hand as far away from her as possible.

Her brown eyes scanned my ID and nodded, "Won't you need this in Utah?"

"What would I need it for? It's not like I'm there to go out drinking. It should be a short stay nonetheless." I explained quickly.

She shrugged and stared at her computer, "There's a train leaving in an hour and a half, how about that one?"

I nodded and she printed out the ticket. She handed me the ticket, but held tight to the other end and pulled me close enough so that I could smell her onion breath, "Remember our deal."

"Sure." I said horribly lying.

She rose one eyebrow, shrugged and released my ticket. I turned on me heel and practically ran away from her.

It really amuses me because when I'm around girls I actually like I'm struggling to figure out how to form words on my tongue, let alone able to lie and seduce them.

I read the electronic signs searching for platform thirteen. Finally I found it and slowly walked to the automatic sliding doors.

"Nico!"

_Thalia's POV_

"What was the street called again? Percy asked from the passenger seat of the car.

"I told you about a hundred times already, it was Abbey Road!" Annabeth said as her grip tightened on the steering wheel.

"I swear there is no Abbey Road in this town!" Percy said exasperatedly.

"Let me see." I said breaking out of my trance, and snatching the map from Percy.

"First of all, you were looking on the wrong side, that's a completely different town." I explained.

Percy groaned and put his head in his hands, "Well hopefully you can find it, on that extremely unclear map."

"Annabeth, turn right at this stoplight coming up." I said helpfully.

She nodded and turned, and looked in the mirror, looking to me for direction for once. It was usually her giving me all the directions, weather it was driving directions, relationship advice, or guidance in my newly acclaimed lifestyle.

"Hello? Thalia, what next?" Annabeth asked raising one eyebrow.

Apparently I hadn't heard her before, I've really had a difficult time concentrating recently.

"Sorry Annabeth, I haven't really been able to focus lately." I said hurriedly scanning the map, "Keep going and merge onto LaFox Road."

"Do you know the intersection where Nico was?" Percy asked, "It would be easier to find exactly where he was and what direction he was going."

Annabeth's grimaced, struggling to remember, "It was something like corsage, only with a K instead of a C."

"Was it Kearsarge Avenue?" I said looking at all the intersections with Abbey Road.

"Yeah! That's exactly it, is there anything around it."

My eyes roamed the map, "Like what, landmarks or something?"

"Anything." Percy said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, remember that you were the one holding this thing upside down! It's not easy to understand!" I said, defending myself.

"Look for memorials, cemeteries, places that Nico would be drawn to." Annabeth said quizzically, not completely sure if that would help.

"Just because he's a son of Hades, doesn't mean that he'd like to go stomp on some random person's grave!" Percy said, probably saying the exact thing Nico would say if he were here.

My eyes widened, "How about a train station?"

Annabeth hurriedly nodded her head about twenty times, "How far away from that intersection is it?"

"Only about five minutes, in a car, probably about ten minutes walking, considering the pace Nico was walking at." I told her, realizing what this meant, "He could already be on a train going Hades knows where!"

"I know Nico, he wouldn't just give up on this whole thing like that, and he's probably looking for a train to Utah." Percy said, his Nico knowledge kicking in.

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding, and laughed nervously, "Your right, what are the odds that a train to Utah left within the last ten minutes."

I guess they decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to answer that question because Annabeth merged silently.

"We're close, in two stoplights that's the intersection he was crossing, and then the train station is straight ahead on your left." I said softly, breaking the silence.

Annabeth nodded and slowed down at a red light. Tears started to form in my eyes, really wondering why he would just up and leave me like that.

Percy twisted around in his seat his caring sea green eyes reading the emotions on my face. He unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed into the backseat with me. He took me in his arms as my tears started to rapidly stream down my face. My tears wet his shirt, as I held onto it like it was my lifeline. It wasn't a loud ugly cry, but just a giving up holding it in cry.

Percy rubbed my back and made soothing noises, "You know how much Nico loves you, he's even told me before. I'm convinced that you two are soul mates, and he would never leave you alone if he thought that it would be better if he stayed. He really is lucky to have you, you know that right?" He said looking down on me.

I sniffled and unclenched his shirt and moved back so I could see his face, then playfully punched his chest and gave him a half smile.

He held my shoulders and grinned, "There she is, now go get him."

Sometimes Percy really annoyed me, but I wished I was a little more like him. I could only wish that I could ever be as utterly loyal, and kind. He was also constantly doing the right thing.

I looked out the window and realized we were at the train station. Looking to Annabeth for permission, she smiled and nodded, already moving the passenger seat up so I could get out. I jumped out of Percy's blue mustang and ran, full out sprinted, towards my past, present and future.

**Please read and review! Also, tell me the thoughts on the quote at the top of the page. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

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	22. Chapter 22

**Pokemonchen- I don't know! I guess you'll have to wait and see. ;D Thanks again for reading and reviewing!**

**coralie14-Oh poor Nico, he just doesn't think does he? Thanks!**

**LizziDaughterOfHades- Hah! It doesn't mean every color is the opposite; it's just that people misperceive black as the absence of color often. Thanks much for reading and reviewing.**

**paradiseisland101- Thanks so much! I hope you continue to read and review. :)**

**kekemina- Oh, you wrote a book? Hah well my friend sort of started that train of thought. Thanks for reviewing.**

**BlueBerrySourStraps- Yeah I love things like that, like sibling and cousin love. ;) Blah, I'm not much of a Thuke fan. I hate Lukabeth and Perachel also. Aw, thanks so much for reading, reviewing, and loving it.**

**SummerSpirit18- Thanks **_**a lot **_**for thinking its epic, and for reading and reviewing.**

**KylaMarie123- Thanks! I sincerely hope you never do, even though the updates are getting farther and farther apart. Wasn't it cute? I loved it too. Yeah it took me a while to figure out how to write it out. Thanks a great deal!**

**BlueCupcake- Thanks a heap for reading, reviewing, and loving it!**

**1band1dream1direction72310- Aww thank you! I love 1D too ;) just an FYI. Thanks very much!**

**Badmintonholicxxx- Sorry I haven't updated in a while, things have been hectic. Thanks for seriously loving it. **

**Awesome- Actually Apollo is on their side, and we'll see about Artemis. Thanks a good deal.**

**Amythest Sarah Jackson- Yay! Thanks a great deal.**

**Amythest Sarah Jackson- Thanks soooo much! Thoose are some of the sweetest things someone's ever said to me. Although most of the time it's not true. No worries, I'll never give up on it. Thanks enormously!**

_Thalia's POV_

Peoples' faces blurred as I sped past them looking for the bastard that I called my boyfriend. I was _so _angry with him. Never mind that, I searched for that shaggy black hair that I badly wanted run my fingers through. That pale olive skin, and the neck that I wanted to bury my head in the crook of. Plus those dark eyes that could warm me, and make me shiver at the same time, but most of all those naturally rosy lips that I wanted to kiss till the sun came up again.

Then I saw him.

That hair, those eyes, lips, and so much more that I needed to stop from leaving, just as I had found them again.

"Nico!" I yelled frantically.

His head snapped towards me, and he looked shocked for a second, but then couldn't stop himself from breaking into a wide grin, as neither could I. He dropped his belongings, and then opened his arms to me, beckoning me to him.

Never slowing down, I flew through the air and wrapped my legs around his muscular torso. His powerful arms wrapped around me, as though he never wanted to let go.

I took his face in my hands and he stared up at me beaming. Then I kissed his forehead, cheeks, chin, and finally lips.

It felt as though we had been apart forever, even though the last time I saw him was in the wee hours of the morning. The problem was that it felt like we never reunited since I was attacked by Dustin. He then pulled away and said, "I promise you, I will _never_ let anyone, including myself, hurt you again. The only reason I left was because I actually believed that you'd be better off without me."

He wiped the leftover tear tracks off of my face with his thumb, and smiled sweetly, "That's obviously not the case."

I opened my mouth to speak, but he put his pointer finger on my lips in an effort to quiet me, "I know your probably angry with me, but trust me, I've already punished myself enough. I don't expect you to forgive me, but p-"

I then cut him off with a passionate kiss. For a second he tensed up, but quickly relaxed. I ran my fingers through his silky hair, which I'd been longing to do. I unwrapped my legs from around him and his arms were then the only thing holding me up. He slightly loosened them and I slid to the ground, never breaking the kiss.

I broke away, gasping for air, "Are you going to let me talk now?"

He nodded without hesitation, as a dreamy look covered his face.

"If you _ever _scare me like that again Di Angelo, I swear I'll- I'll- I don't really know, but I will do something," I said struggling to come up with a reason, "I got it, never let you touch me again, in any shape or form."

"I don't know that might be a punishment for you too." Nico said, winking and kissing me chastely.

"Okay maybe your right, but still. Also, I forgive you." I said smiling blissfully, completely forgetting the angry speech I had planned out before.

"You don't have to do that, rea-"I cut him off with my finger, the same way he did to me.

"Just shut up! I can't even forgive you, without you protesting!" I exclaimed, exasperatedly.

"Okay fine, but I still don't think its right." He said, gazing at me like a love sick puppy.

He started to pepper kisses, down my face and neck speaking in between. "You-have-no idea-how much- I- missed you." He finally bit down softly on my collarbone, marking me as his.

I gasped and shook my head slightly, that would be hard to hide, considering I'm wearing a V-neck. I had completely forgotten where we were but was finally jolted back when someone decided to wolf whistle.

I searched the crowd off people to find the culprit and was met with mischievous sea green eyes winking at me then disappearing into the crowd.

I chuckled quietly, then shook my head softly, Percy and his antics.

"What's up?" Nico asked, confused.

His caring eyes lovingly stared down at me, and it took everything I had not to dive into a make-out session in the middle of a crowded train station. I finally unwrapped my arms from around him, but his stayed in place.

"Nico, we need to get going, we can't do that if you don't let go of me." I said giggling.

He sighed and squeezed me tighter, burying his face in my hair and breathing in.

He then let me go, but still held onto my hand and smiled, "Mint, I've always loved the smell of your hair."

I couldn't help but cackle loudly, and Nico soon joined in. Percy and Annabeth's familiar chortling was heard, and we turned around quickly.

"Well that was a Kodak moment." Annabeth said, smiling, "It's a good thing I got a shot."

She waved her camera in our face expecting us to attack her but we just smiled, obviously basking in the enjoyment of our reconnecting.

"Whoa, you guys really are soul mates." Percy said playfully, his eyes widening.

Nico rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Like you two aren't."

Annabeth shrugged and nodded looking to Percy. He looked at down at her lovingly and rose his eyebrows.

Annabeth gray eyes looked towards us again, "You're probably right about that. I mean after all that demigods have gone through, I think we, and all other demigods, deserve love."

I nodded in agreement and sighed, "Well what next?"

Percy cocked an eyebrow and looked to Nico, "Well what where you planning on doing?"

Nico shrugged, "Honestly, for a while I was thinking about turning around, but I had no way to find you, then I thought better of it.", he sighed deeply and forged on, " I know I probably shouldn't of done this, but I seduced a clerk into slipping me a ticket."

Annabeth broke into a maddening cackle at the thought of Nico seducing anyone. Nico feigned hurt by putting his hand on his chest and gasping, "What, you don't think I could seduce anyone?"

Percy rose his eyebrows, nodding slowly, obviously lying.

"Well if it helps, I believe you, but you aren't really the type to do that to get your way." I said hastily.

"You don't count; you've seen that side of me." Nico said not being very careful with his wording.

Percy snickered slyly while Annabeth continued to giggle madly. I blushed furiously, and hid my head. Nico realized what he'd said and an awkward sideways smile started to present itself.

"Whoops, but my point is I am perfectly capable. I even have the ticket to prove it." Nico said pulling out a train ticket.

That's when I'd snapped out of my oblivious bliss, and started to get crossed and gloomy.

I started to blink rapidly and said, "You really were going to leave weren't you?"

His warm, dancing, brown eyes quickly darkened, and turned confused.

His mouth opened and closed, as though his brain was sending it messages, but it refused to obey.

I shook my head and looked at the ground dirty ground, frustrating tears threatening to spill over. I was so angry, annoyed, furious, and forlorn at the same time, I just became overwhelmed.

"Just save it."


	23. Chapter 23

**I'm back! I'm SO sorry I haven't updated but I tried to write a longer one to make up for some of it. School is overwhelming, but on the bright side I broke my foot and have more time to write because no sports! Thanks everyone for the 202 reviews as of now! We hit the 200 mark! **** Please try to forgive me and read again, thanks!**

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_Thalia's POV_

"_Just save it."_

I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced the tears in my eyes to recede. This wasn't me, I didn't act this way. I clenched my jaw and whipped around trying to shove through the crowd when an iron hard grip on my forearm. I jerked away from the hot, smooth hand, trying to escape his predatory grasp.

I gasp as the hold tightened even more, and I could feel my hand start to tingle. He was possibly cutting off the circulation in my hand. Halting and whipping around to face Nico, but it wasn't Nico I was met with.

Of course it wasn't Nico; his hands were rough and callused, cool though, never _burning_ hot. He also wouldn't dare to handle me like I was a rag doll, as if I was a toy at his disposal. What I was face to face with, I can't say I liked. A woman with stringy flaming red and gray hair, that didn't match her wrinkleless face and immense strength, stared straight at me. Her tattered rags that clothed her looked like they would've once looked like an elaborate dress. She snarled at me and pulled me over to the wall at lightening speeds.

My head hit the concrete wall, and then spots began to dot my vision, so I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to force them out.

"You're filth, an obscenity, you caused my downfall." She snarled in my face, her hot breath suffocating me.

"I didn't cause any downfall of yours! I don't even know who you are!" I tried to work out in my overloaded mind who in the world this crazy woman was.

"You might've never realized it, but it's_ your_ entire fault." She hissed, pulling out a razor sharp knife, which seemed to be glowing gold.

She grasped my forearm roughly once more and dug it into my skin, then moved it up my forearm. I hoped she wasn't digging too deep, because cutting upwards at my veins could kill me. I struggled, my left arm fumbling to reach the knife I kept in my boot. It felt like white hot lava running up my arm, I let out a stifled scream of agony. I'd never felt pain like this in my entire existence. She ran it all the way up my arm to my shoulder where she proceeded to dig deeper in my skin, changing her pattern. I squirmed and thrashed, battering the women with my left fist and legs. This didn't seem to faze her though, as she barely swayed an inch. Her attention fully focused on the task at hand.

My eyes opened and shut as I tried not to convulse with the anguish I felt. Seeing flashes of the world, I let out irreconcilable stutters and groans, seeing my friends trying to push through an invisible barrier. Finally the women decided she'd had enough and vanished.

I collapsed to the ground, finally admitting defeat, hearing my fast, pounding heartbeat in my ears. Feeling liquid being poured down my throat, I coughed and sputtered, my body convulsing trying to rid the horrible fluid from my insides. It burned especially in my arm and shoulder, almost as if the woman was digging that cursed blade into my skin again.

My body then satisfied that the molten drink had been expelled from it, then decided to relax. It relaxed a little too much as my body fell slack, and my mind followed.

ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩLINE BREAK! ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ

I struggled to open my eyes, I really wanted to, but my eyes fought against me. I could feel my eyes roll back into place as the world came back into focus. The pain in my arm and neck sharpened and I saw the world come back into focus. Hearing a weird sound almost like train tracks, thrumming beneath me. The room swayed slightly and my stomach lurched. Making the mistake of using my right arm to sit up, the pain raged again. Suddenly aware of the bandages wrapped up around my arm and shoulder, they were tinted red and gold.

My attention off my arm, and back to my pitching nausea in my stomach, I bolted to the bathroom. Leaning over the toilet bowl, I practically dry heaved bile that was tinted gold. Unsuccessfully trying to empty my stomach, my body shuddered. I heard a door slide open and shut, noise rushing in and then being blocked out again. I tried to speak but then retched into the toilet once again. Soon I felt a cool hand stroking my back and pulling my hair back. I coughed, spit, and gasped, cool air filling my lugs again.

I took the towel offered to me silently and shakily stood up and came face to face with Nico Di Angelo. Bags and dark circles hung under his eyes that were chock-full of worry, concern, and many other emotions I couldn't place.

"I'm sorry." He croaked, filling the silence.

"You've already been forgiven." I spoke in my voice, which was dry and cracked.

I grabbed him in a tight embrace and drunk in his scent. Just a nice, warm, reassuring hug was exactly what I'd wanted. Like usual, he kissed my head and sighed with content.

"This is your entire fault." I said playfully smiling up at him.

He sighed, "I know, we can talk about that later, but right now I'll get you a glass of water and a change of bandages. Stay in this compartment, were on our way to Utah, should be there late tonight."

Nico shuffled out of the compartment looking both ways and disappearing to the left. I was only joking that it was his entire fault, I was trying to break the tension and get a laugh out of him. It really was my fault; I'd acted immature and ran away from my problems like always. He just made me feel weak, emotional, and although I don't like to admit it, insecure.

Nico slid back into the compartment with a new roll of stark white gauze, antibiotic cream, and a bottle of water. Handing the water to me he silently started to unroll the gauze around my arm. I inhaled sharply with pain, and he looked up into my eyes silently asking for permission to continue. Finally unwrapping it all the way from around my shoulder, then his hand brushed my spine and I shivered involuntarily.

His eyes scraped across my shoulder, and then his opaque eyes, blackened and hardened with hatred and revenge. Confused I looked down on my arm. The vain like abrasions, were healed only slightly. Confused I wondered why they didn't give me nectar or ambrosia.

As if reading my mind Nico spoke, "We tried to force nectar down, but it just made it worse. Your body wouldn't accept it, and it caused your injuries more pain. We think it must've been something to do with the blade she used. These are going to be scars, as they were forced to heal manually, and are pretty deep."

I nodded taking in this information. That was the golden liquid I threw up. It was also the terrible liquid that was poured down my throat after the women vanished, Nico was right, it did make it worse.

Remembering the invisible barrier between me and my friends I decided to question Nico about it.

"Annabeth is doing some research on her, but she thinks she could be one of the agents of Hera, a pharmacide. They were herbalists or sorceresses, I've never heard of one before, but apparently Annabeth has. Since she was a 'sorceress' she could've probably known how to enchant that blade and put up that weird shield." He explained.

I nodded, the dots connecting, and everything making sense.

"You know I was just trying to get a laugh out of you, this is not your fault in anyway." I said, feeling the miniscule tears developing behind my eyes.

"No it really is my fault, I did nothing to reassure you that I really wasn't planning on never finding you again. My plan really was to go all the way to Utah, and find Nike. I didn't want anyone I loved to suffer anymore, so I was planning to end this once and for all. Now we can do this all together." He said with a small smile.

I smiled, but the miniscule tears enlarged, threatening to overflow. I didn't deserve Nico, I don't care what he, or anyone else says.

His eyebrows furrowed, as a lone tear escaped while I chuckled slightly. It seemed to confuse him that I could laugh and cry at the same time.

"See this is what you do to me," I laughed, "you make me feel all confused! Like back in that train station I completely wanted to judo throw you, but then I ended up kissing you. Then I was completely happy, but then turned frustrated quickly. I acted immaturely and then stormed off, that's what got me in this mess. You make me feel ecstatic, blissful, on cloud nine, frustrated sometimes, dejected, weak, inferior, and insecure." I then whispered the last words, "Nonetheless I love you."

Nico sighed, shaking his head, "I never knew that I made you feel that way, all confused. It's obvious why you've been acting differently. I'm glad you've been opening up lately, but soon we can get back to the fun times. You are _not_ in any way weak or inferior. Your one of the strongest people I know. You have _absolutely nothing _to be insecure about. What are you insecure about? You can tell me."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. It was I who brought up all those feelings, it made sense that he wanted me to explain them. Honestly, I was starting to regret blurting all that out, but I told myself it was a good thing.

I took a deep breath then started to mutter meekly, "I'm afraid that I'm not good enough for you. I'm not nice or cute like every other girl. I'm not insanely beautiful like some of the girls that want you. I'm afraid that my thighs are too big, my scars are unattractive, and much more. I'm overpowering and overbearing, and I'm most of all not normal. I could go on for a while, but that would take to long."

Although Nico wanted to interrupt me a thousand times through my list, he managed to stay quiet through all I had to say. Now he looked almost upset and frustrated.

"I'm so sorry I haven't made it clear and reassured you that you're none of those things, and much better than _any _other girl, I don't care if you're Aphrodite herself. I'm not going to go back and forth and say no I'm not good enough for you. I know it, and you should too. I'll never be good enough for you. Do you think I want a stick figure Barbie? I like your thighs, hell I _absolutely love them, _they're _not _too big. Your scars show how strong you are and how much you've been through, and I admire that. You are a strong woman, but you're not overbearing." He said desperately trying to reassure me.

"When these cuts heal and turn into scars, I'll love them just as much as I love the rest of you." He said tracing the bandages on my arm with light patterns.

I wiped my tears and grinned, "I'll try to be more like myself again, strong and independent. The Thalia you know and love."

"This vulnerable Thalia is easier to talk to and figure out, which helps me a lot. I love this Thalia too. I love, and always will, love ever version of you"

**Again I am really sorry I haven't updated and forever. School has got the best of me and so has writers block. Please read and review! Like always what was your favorite line? I really hope you guys haven't given up on me, thanks again. **

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	24. Chapter 24

**paradiseisland101- Gladly. Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

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>Lightning-AND'Death- Does 20 days count as soon. Thanks a million for reading and reviewing!<strong>

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**So here's my best try at percabeth, tell me what you think. I updated quicker! 20 days isn't exactly soon, but it's better than before. Thanks for the 214 reviews! Please continue to read and review!**

**Disclaimer- I own **_**niente.**_

**Annabeth's POV**

I absent-mindedly picked at my thumb nail as Percy milled around the small compartment that housed a bunk bed, which took over most of the space. In the day time they folded into seats, but we had been up all night, considering we boarded late last evening. The bottom bunk, that was considerably larger than the top, which I sat on. It seemed to vibrate a little more whenever Percy took another long stride. It didn't help that the train seemed to lurch a little with every turn it took.

I sighed and ran my dirty hands through my tangled hair, "Look, would you stop pacing? You're going to wear holes in the carpet!"

His bright green eyes swiveled to meet mine, "I really think we should be watching Thalia, Nico is probably somewhere else taking out his worry or hatred on an inanimate object! You know how he gets when this happens!"

I rubbed my temples willing my throbbing headache to go away, "Look Nico has changed, and you _know_ that. He's not that troubled little kid anymore! You don't seem to realize how much I want _run _to her and make sure she's okay. She's always protected me, but now she has a protector, and it sure isn't me."

Percy's face tensed and he took a deep breath, his shoulders rising then falling. His rigid posture relaxed and came to sit next to me on the bunk.

He gathered me into his arms and squeezed me tight and murmured, "How many times do you have to be right for me to stop challenging your views?"

"If you stopped doing that it wouldn't be us, would it?"

He chuckled lowly, and his entire body shuddered, "I believe it wouldn't, it's the way we work. You prove me wrong, and constantly come up with the right things to say, while I sit there and fantasize like I can solve all the problems in the world by pretending I know what I'm doing."

I allowed a tight-lipped smile to surface on my taut face, when I heard the compartment door open and shut. Nico rushed in rummaging through one of the bags on the floor.

It was silent besides the bumping of the objects against one and another in the bag, before Percy whispered, "How is she?"

"As fine as you can be after retching in the toilet and sleeping for almost a day." Nico said, suddenly stopping his search and his tense shoulders slumping and his spine slouching.

He took a deep breath and his shoulders shuddered, "Have you seen the gauze?"

I got up with about as much grace as a fumbling bear and stumbled over to him.

"It's in the other bag." I said softly, pointedly looking at the squat suitcase.

He nodded about repeatedly, as he looked through the bag and pulled out the simple white wrap. He seemed to glare at it, as he fished out the antibiotic cream.

"Here take some water." Percy said, silently appearing behind me.

Nico took it slowly the nodded again and whispered, "You can come see her if you want, you know that right."

I could practically hear the wide smile take over Percy's face, and I shook my head quickly.

"That's fine we'll be there in a minute." I said as insistently as I could, while feeling Percy's eyes burning a hole into my back.

I quickly ushered a confused Nico out of the compartment, and pivoted slowly to face Percy my eyes downcast at the ground.

"He just said we could go see her! Why did you just kick him out like that?" He asked incredulously.

"Think about it, if it were me in Thalia's position would you want everyone swarming over me as soon as I woke?" I said, standing my ground.

He pressed his lips together and nodded, "Spot-on again I'm afraid. Nico would've told us if there was anything wrong, right?"

I nodded with a weary smile, and stretched, trying to compress the yawn that threatened to break my façade.

Percy tilted his head to the side and smiled sympathetically, "Why don't you steal a few minutes and try out that miniature shower they have in here."

I shook my head firmly, "I'm fine, really. I should be doing more research on the pharmacides actually."

Percy took my hands gently and rubbed the palms of them. I relaxed instantly and almost forgot what I was about to do. He seemed to read my mind as he mouthed 'no' silently.

He stopped rubbing my hands and tucked my tangled hair behind my ear and whispered, "You know I love that strawberry shampoo of yours."

My resolve crumbled quite quickly as his mouth was on mine, gently caressing my lips. He broke away too soon and I kept my eyes closed and nodded.

"Fine, but I won't be long I promise."

"Take as long as you need." He said, handing me my large makeup bag that I kept my washcloth, toothbrush, toothpaste, and shampoo in.

I silently grabbed the complementary soap bar and tugged open the shower curtain and disappeared inside.

The shower was small, even smaller than the bathing stalls in the Athena cabin. We were all about efficiency, and found no need for large bathrooms. With practically no room to bend I ran the soap up and down my skin, while the hot water pounded at my back. I hadn't realized the knots in my shoulders until they slowly came undone as I lathered the shampoo into my scalp. I was done before I wanted to be, and wrung out the extra water in my curly hair. I reached out and took the towel that was on the sink right next to the shower.

Wrapping it around my body I stepped out and saw Percy covering his eyes with his hands, "I won't look, promise."

I laughed softly at the amount of respect he shows me. Quickly, I dress into comfortable clothes. Slipping on my yoga pants and sweater I felt safe and comfortable. The train was quite drafty, and the air conditioner was way too cold. I towel dried my hair, and settled back down into Percy's arms.

He buried his nose into my hair, "Smells like strawberries, I told you I love it."

I twisted around to face him, and gave him an, what I hoped, was an alluring smile.

"I'm glad."

Lust rolled over his eyes as clouds, like they often did, and then he crashed my lips to his. I don't think I would ever get enough of this. The white hot trail his hands left on my body, wherever they ran over. The taste of his lips, his soft hair threaded through my fingers.

My legs trapped him, with each of them on either side of his torso. I nibbled softly behind his ear and he groaned lowly.

We probably would've continued if I heard the muffled cough and grumbling of someone. I froze my eyes widening, I was absolutely mortified. I could feel the blood rushing up to my face as I turned around slowly and scrambled away from Percy.

I saw a fuzzy picture of our satyr friend Grover.

"G-man!" Percy yelped, rushing over to where Grover's head was floating in the form of an Iris message.

"Percy! Annabeth! Long time no talk! I'm sorry this is fuzzy, but the gods are blocking all communication to you. It took some extra drachmas to get Iris to connect me." Grover bleated nervously, he sounded as if he was far away though, we could barely hear him.

"Hurry Grover, why have you called us in the first place?" I said hurriedly, afraid that the connection would break any moment.

"Chiron heard what Zeus is up to, and is doing everything he can to help. We've got Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Poseidon, and Hades on our side. Dionysus is leaning towards us too. We've got enough gods to stop Zeus!"

"That's great! When are they doing the council?" I asked, excitedly.

"Not sure, but probably in a few weeks. The mass deaths in third world countries have got Hades pretty busy." Grover said, unsure.

"I guess we should still get the elixir from Nike, who knows how long it could take to rally everyone together. The Olympics are tomorrow, gods I hope we were right." Percy said, worriedly.

"I really hope you hav-" Grover slowly faded away as the connection was severed.

"Hope we have what?' I said dreadfully.

"We have everything we need as long as we have each other."

**How'd you like my percabeth? I told you I'm not that great at it. Tell me your favorite line and favorite holiday.**

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	25. Chapter 25

**Guest- (Chapter 11) Yes! You're right! I congradulate you. :) Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

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**I'm so sorry i haven't wrote or updated in a while, the holidays have been apon us. Happy new year! Merry christmas, happy hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate. Well a few more chapters then it's all over! My editor had time to edit, so thanks to lovegreeneyes001! Should have better grammer this chapter. It's also the longest one yet, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer- I own nothing.**

Percy's POV

Soon Annabeth just went back to what Annabeth does best: research. Research, battle plans, sparring, kissing, she's good at a lot of things. She pulled out her laptop and immediately started typing away, while I sat watching her. A few blond curls fell into her focused stormy eyes and she hadn't even noticed. I reached a scarred hand out to brush them away, and she hastily smacked my finger away from her face. Annabeth never lost focus, well very rarely, and now wasn't an exception.

I raised an eyebrow and slowly inched closer to her. She probably wouldn't have paid me any mind unless I decided to go streaking through the train. So I decided to suggest just that.

"Hey Annabeth, I'm thinking about streaking all the way down the dining car, would you mind?"

She grunted and waved her hand at me, with an air of indifference.

I suppose that I was wrong, she didn't pay me any attention even if I did. I sighed and put my arms behind my head.

Soon I heard hard footsteps and Nico slid the compartment door open with an air of importance. He inched closer to Annabeth who continued typing, and then put her hands on her cheeks, obviously reading.

"Research?" He asked knowingly.

"Yeah, didn't even care when I suggested streaking to get some food." Percy said, shaking his head sadly.

Nico suddenly slammed the laptop closed, finally capturing Annabeth's attention.

"What do you think you're—" Annabeth started to rant angrily, before Nico cut her off.

"I was thinking we should discuss battle strategy, considering Thalia is sleeping. It's good to have a plan; I've learned that after charging into fights blindly." Nico said, acting oddly serious.

"Well I don't think it's a good idea to be doing this while Thalia is asleep. Unless you plan on going through the trouble of filling her in afterwards, and having her completely change the strategy." Annabeth said, still irritated at Nico.

"There is no way she is strong enough to face Nike, end of story." Nico said, rigidly.

Annabeth let out a cruel high-pitched cackle, "You think she's going to lie down and let us go off to fight without her? Well you're in for a rude awakening. Do you not know her well enough to understand that?"

I held up a hand confused, trying to follow the rapid words spitting out of the two stubborn demigods mouths, "Wait, tomorrow is the opening ceremony, correct?"

Nico rolled his eyes, "Yes, tomorrow is the opening ceremony. We've been over this already."

"It probably isn't starting till at least sunset, because of the fireworks and all. We can't get her strong enough by then? It is, after all, only late afternoon." I said, trying to give Nico an out here.

If he honestly thought that Thalia wouldn't fight, and would forgive us for preventing her too, he was seriously off his rocker. I mean, I wish we could put a stop to her from attacking Nike the first chance she gets, but we can't. I understood where Nico was coming from, he had good intentions, but they weren't going to stand with her.

"That's only a little more than twenty four hours! She can barely stand up without help, and she looks terrible! I mean, she's completely beautiful, but there's no life in her. It'll take a while for that to replenish." Nico said, the volume and intensity of his voice dwindling as he spoke.

I sighed running a calloused palm down my face; I was starting to see why Thalia swore off men for a while. I am a male, but sometimes we could be a little, overbearing and protective. I never saw that in myself when I was the culprit, but I saw it in others. She's as independent as they come, and she doesn't welcome that in most cases.

"You have to ultimately leave that up to Thalia! She can choose herself, which will save us a lot of unneeded storms over the Utah area." Annabeth said, muttering the last part softly.

"We all know she'll go charging into battle, thinking she's strong enough, and will get herself killed! We can't deal with that, hell I can't deal with that. We don't know what were up against." Nico said, trying to get the power couple to see his point of view.

"The best we can do is to attempt to make it as safe as possible for her, give her a lesser role. If we tie her up or something, she'll find a way out of it, and go charging in even more oblivious." Annabeth said, her Athena heritage coming through.

Nico sighed, his posture slumping looking defeated, "I suppose that's the best we can do."

Annabeth nodded, proud at being correct again, "Now if you would excuse me, I would like to get back to researching. Percy, you could streak all over Manhattan and I wouldn't give a damn. Now go get everyone some food so we can start planning."

Annabeth often had these outbursts of control where she demanded everyone to do something productive, I wasn't in the mood for arguing anymore, as I had a pounding headache. To keep Nico's mind active, and to prevent him from having another fit of gallantry, I took him with, claiming I only had two arms to carry food with.

The heavy thumping of Nico's combat boots where starkly different from the light treading in my casual trainers, I liked to think that this reflected our fighting styles. I was slightly more swift and calculative than Nico, and more likely to use a blade as my weapon. Nico usually fought on instinct alone, as his powers were his weapons of choice; he tended to not be as tense. We were, by no means, polar opposites in strategy. That would be like Clarisse and Annabeth, swift and cunning, against brute strength.

I found myself distant from reality as I thought about Nico. He seemed to be ever changing, his personality especially. He had recently become more humorous and relaxed, instead of withdrawn from most people. Percy liked to think this was because of Thalia, but a few months before he had even met her, he had started to shift. He always seemed to snap back to his old distant self every once and a while. Percy had decided to drop it when he came to the buffet style packaged meals.

"Get something for Thalia and yourself, nothing too heavy." I instructed picking a turkey sandwich and an orange for Annabeth, while I got myself a ham and cheese sandwich with a pear.

Nico came back with two cookies and two cokes and a huge excited grin on his face, "I haven't had sugar in a while, and I could use some."

I glared at him, "I said light! Thalia will probably upchuck all of this stuff with her weak stomach, and you'll be bouncing off the walls, and will crash later. This has no nutritional value either, and we need to get our strength up."

I felt oddly like his parent when I chided him for grabbing that food. I thought about being in this situation in several years with my own child. I shook my head quickly; I was running from the gods, not sure if I would live into next month. I didn't have the luxury of thinking about several years in front of me.

"Relax, grandma, I grabbed two cookies for all of us to share, and the cokes were just to see your reaction." Nico said smirking and putting the cokes back in the cooler, and grabbing sandwiches and two green apples.

"Go get us four bottles of water; no one really needs pop right now." I said, chuckling lightly.

Nico obliged, and I watched him grab all the waters, putting them on top of the towering tray. I leered slightly, as two girls at one of the miniscule tables in the car giggling and sneaking glances at my shaggy haired friend. I shook my head grinning as Nico looked at me confused.

"Couldn't even turn off that Italian charm for a little while Di Angelo?" I asked him as we set down the two trays that looked like dual Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Nico's eyebrows furrowed as I shook the hair out of my eyes and nodded my head slightly in the giggling girls' direction. He rolled his eyes and shoved me towards the hallway.

"Do you think he's single?" I said giggling and talking in high pitched voice, mocking them.

Nico shoved my shoulder and scoffed, "Girls constantly want a piece of the boy next door charm. Even though you look like the type who would cause a lot of commotion at a mall or skate park. Your sort of half-breed confuses the girls and makes you a challenge."

"Oh no, they like the bad boy, dark and brooding. Constantly mysterious and radiates fear, literally in your case."

He started to laugh hysterically when we heard a distant scream. He quickly became serious, as fire ignited once again behind his pupils.

"That's Thalia." He said sure of himself and speeding up.

"I know, I recognized it," Taking long strides we made it to her compartment quickly.

Nico opened the compartment door quickly and bolted inside, Thalia thrashed and groaned in her sleep clenching the thin sheet draped on top of her. Nico quickly set down the tray on the ground and knelt beside her and started to shake her. This seemed to agitate Thalia more as the thrashing became more erratic.

"Thals, wake up, you're just having a nightmare, please wake up." Nico whispered to her in despair, running his hand across her forehead.

She whimpered and her eyebrows furrowed, and she seemed to calm down a little. I stood shocked by the door, unsure of where my place was in this situation.

Nico whipped towards me, eyes wide and blazing, almost angry looking, "Go get Annabeth! Go!"

I nodded, and put the food down next to the other tray and left quickly, swerving into the next compartment.

I found the blond-haired beauty slumped over her laptop snoring softly; I almost didn't have the heart to wake her up. We had been gone for less than twenty minutes, and she had fallen asleep, she must be tired. I remembered Thalia next door, and shook Annabeth and she jolted awake hitting her head on the bunk above and she groaned.

She gingerly put a hand on her head and glared at me, "What?"

"It's Thalia, she's having a nightmare and she won't wake up." I said, quickly already rushing her out and into the other compartment.

Annabeth gasped as she saw Nico practically screaming at her to wake up.

"Percy hand me the water." Annabeth said, almost impassively.

I handed her one of the bottles, and she opened it hastily and splashed a small amount on Thalia's face. She gasped and opened her eyes, as they darted around the room quickly. Her face tightened as she squeezed her eyes shut. I recognized that look, she was trying to squeeze the tears back in.

Thankfully Nico did too, as one hand grasped hers, and the other ran through her tangled raven hair, "It's fine, let it out."

Thalia shook her head refusing to cry, she opened her eyes, chin trembling, "I don't understand, tell me why?"

Thalia's watery electric blue eyes shifted, meeting all different eye colors and finally settling on the stormy gray pair, "Did you find anything on the pharmacides?"

Annabeth pursed her lips, "Why don't we all sit down and eat, there's a lot we have to talk about."

Thalia steeled herself and used her arms to hoist herself up, she winced and Nico practically lifted her up and onto the hard floor, setting her down gently. We all sat in a circle munching silently on our food. There wasn't much room in the tiny compartment so we had to sit on the threadbare carpeted floor. When Thalia reached for her water I saw the white bandages traveling up her arm and disappearing underneath her sleeve.

I guess she saw my eyes and she snatched her arm back quickly, and stared at me with a look that defiantly said, 'say anything and I'll murder you.' Well at least I know she could still use her glares as a weapon. Annabeth clapped her hands together loudly when everyone was finished, signaling something serious was about to take place.

"Well I've done some research and I'm pretty sure the woman who attacked was a pharmacide of Hera. Since she's a sorceress it explains why she could do that with the blade and barrier, but why would she decide to attack you now? She's an old servant of Hera not Zeus. I understand the grudge; Hera hates children of Zeus, but still." Annabeth said, obviously not enlightened much by the internet.

"Maybe Zeus decided to utilize her strong grudge against children of his, to try and slow us down?" I suggested.

"That women could've killed me she had the chance. So I don't think Zeus sent her, maybe Hera," She paused and took a shaky breath in, Nico took her hand and nodded encouraging her, "took this opportunity, where Zeus wouldn't care about me to get her revenge on one of the children of Zeus."

"That completely makes sense, but could I see your arm Thalia?" Annabeth asked tentatively.

Thalia swallowed and nodded, Nico looked at her and motioned to the bandage, silently asking for permission. She nodded again, and he slowly began to take off the bandage, she hissed slightly as the air hit the aberrations. He removed the bandage all the way up to the shoulder pulling the sleeve as he went.

I clenched my jaw and fist as I saw the vain like raised flesh traveling all the way up her arm to her shoulder. I noticed a small pattern on her shoulder. Confused, I leaned closer to her to get a better look at it. It was so little I was surprised I noticed it. Carved into the angry red skin was the miniscule ancient Greek word, Θάνατος.

Death.

**(I was thinking about ending it here, but I decided to give you guys a little more.)**

My eyes widened and looked to Nico, he nodded slightly and somberly, indicating he had seen it. I looked to Annabeth she nodded, "I don't think this woman wanted to kill you, she wanted to mark you, to brand you."

"Makes sense, could you bandage me back up?" She asked Nico, he assisted her while Annabeth moved off topic.

"We need a plan to defeat Nike; we can't just go in there blind." Annabeth said, saying what she knew was on all our minds.

"I was thinking about that, when we get to Salt Lake City we should find a hotel, sleep and then we need to look around the arena before the crowd sets in. If we knew our surroundings well it would give us an advantage."I suggested.

Everyone agreed so Nico added, "We need armor, well we don't need it, but we need all the help we can get. If I could get into the underworld my armor is there, and I could grab some extras. I think my father should be able to help us."

"Okay, Nico will go to the underworld grab some armor; I think we should try to find the blue prints. They could help us find a way in." Annabeth said, the gears in her head whirring.

"Of course, you would want the blue prints Annabeth." Thalia said in an attempt to tease her.

Annabeth laughed half-heartedly, "They could really be to our advantage. Where do you think Nike would even be in the stadium? We aren't even sure she'll be here, it's just a tip off of Hades."

I began to notice how ridiculous that sounded. If Nike wasn't there all we'd been working toward would be for nothing.

"Okay then we can meet back at the Hotel and really plan our actions. All though the most carefully laid plans can crash and burn. She has to be there, she's an Olympian and everything lines up. What other 'games' could he even be talking about?" Nico said, bemused.

"Maybe Nike would be in the stands or some V.I.P spot. Maybe even behind the scenes. We won't know for sure until we get there." Thalia said, interjecting slightly into the conversation.

"Okay, we should be near-" Annabeth was cut off by the perky women's voice announcing they would be arriving in thirty minutes time.

"Let's get off this train it's making me nauseous." I said, quickly skipping out and standing in the dim hallway.

If this was going to work we would need an Olympic sized dose of cold, hard, luck.

**R&R**

**Favorite line from this chapter, and what're your opinions on Harry Potter, i finished reading it finally, and i loved it. Took alot of convincing, it was great. I'm thinking about writing a few of thoose fics after i'm done with my other PJO fic.**

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	26. Chapter 26

**Guys I'm really, really sorry I haven't updated, but I am now. I wouldn't blame you if you've stopped reading, but I really have to finish this fan fiction. Thanks my lovelies!**

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Nico's POV

I lugged two heavy bags on my shoulder trailing behind the rest of the group through the over-crowded train station. Annabeth was partially supporting Thalia as she could walk fine, but was still a little weak. I could tell from the grimace on her face, she was still hurting. Dark bags hung under her eyes, and her head hung low. I've never seen her look so defeated. Although Annabeth said she had worse times when she ran away from home.

Saying that the people in the station were diverse would be an understatement; they came from completely opposite ends of the spectrum. From doting mothers pushing their precious children in strollers, to bachelor business men in suits with brief cases and cell phones glued to their ears. I think I even saw a whole group of people sporting Canadian fan ware. Along with a marching band that was "HERE TO WIN NATIONALS!" according to their shirts. This used to be one of my favorite hobbies, people watching. It kept me entertained, without having to actually participating. If something interested me, I added my two cents, but that didn't happen often.

I kept my ears trained on other people's conversations, and let me tell you there were some weird ones.

"Billy Joe, would you take your brother to the bathroom before I skin your hide!" A plump woman said in a southern accent.

"No, that's a C sharp! I've told you that before!" A member of the marching band said, exasperated.

All the small snippets of conversations flooded my mind, as I almost wished I was one of them. Almost. If I was them, I'd never had met these wonderful friends I have now, and I have to say, I almost like the person I'd become. Almost.

Percy rammed through the crowds with great determination, and I hoped, a good sense of direction. Cabs were lined up in front of the station, and we choose one that was a long, yellow minivan.

Percy and I swung all our bags into the trunk while Annabeth and Thalia climbed in. I slid the door closed after me.

"Where do you wanna go kids?" The driver asked in a husky accent.

I had assumed it was a man, but when they turned around, I saw that it was just a woman with a raspy voice. I guessed it was probably due to excessive smoking, which her scent confirmed.

"The closest and cheapest hotel around." Percy said in a monotone.

"Do I look like Google maps to you kid? You tell me an address and I drive you there." She said with her eyes narrowed, then added, "The meter's already running, by the way."

I grit my teeth and narrowed my eyes, taking a deep breath ready to cuss out this woman, and exit her cab. I _really _wasn't in the mood for this. Thalia put a hand on my rising chest and shook her head. I settled for giving her a glare in her rearview mirror, just wishing she'd see me, and she finally did. I felt my eyes darken, then the inferno ignited behind my pupil When she looked away I smirked, partially satisfied with her reaction.

"Just keep driving until I tell you to stop, got it?" Percy practically growled, which was unusual for him.

Percy was usually very pleasant, and nice to strangers, but he's clearly on edge today. I actually felt a sense of closeness to him at this very moment. Maybe I was starting to rub off on him.

The horrible women continued down the long meandering road. There were thatches of trees all around blocking eyesight. Suddenly a large hotel building came into view.

"Turn here!" Percy hollered, "Now!"

The cab driver grunted, and swerved into the parking lot. The hotel was part of one of those chains, you know, the kind that are in oasis's on the side of the highway, and there's one in about every other town. They're pretty annoying, with all you could put in that empty lot and what not, but when you need one, you're glad they're there.

"Gimme the money, and get out." The ugly women rasped and stretched her hand out towards us.

Percy grudgingly pulled the money out of his pocket, muttering while at it. Just to rub it in her face that she was getting no tip, I placed a penny on top of his cash, chuckling darkly all the while. We slid the door open and hurried to get our bags, slamming the doors behind us.

I watched the cab speed away until that very unflattering shade of yellow disappeared from view.

"That, my friends, was the cab ride from hell." I said, leering slightly.

Thalia grabbed my free hand and locked our fingers together, "I personally found it hilarious! You guys were putting that woman in her place! Although I'm glad you didn't take it too far, which I probably would've done, but you and Percy got there first."

We all tipped our heads back and laughed, while walking towards the hotel entrance. The sliding doors opened and our rubber soles scuffed the floor, notifying the desk clerk that someone had arrived.

"Can I help you?" The pale women asked, failing to look genuinely happy.

"One room, two queen beds please." Annabeth said, inattentive.

The clerk eyed us quickly, wary of the kind of havoc four trouble-making looking teenagers could cause in the hotel.

"Don't worry; we don't plan to wreck your room too bad." Percy snarled, at the tiny red head, handing her the money. She grasped the money quickly and made the room keys.

That boy could be sassy when he was in a mood. I guess I'm used to the optimistic Percy, the fearless leader. I suppose I should make up for him now, since the rolls seemed to be reversing.

The women quickly held out the room keys, not meeting our eyes. I suppose she was intimidated, we could radiate that sometimes, especially me. I sort of felt bad for her, gods I was starting to get a conscience.

I bent my knees a little taking down my height a few inches, tilting my head so that she had to meet my eyes. I smiled, as genuinely as I could, "Thanks, really."

She nodded and one corner of her mouth twitched upward, stretching the scar by her eye. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes, reveling one longer scar diagonally across her forehead, looking at Thalia. Thalia flashed a white toothed smile winking. The women, Amber as I could tell from her name tag, laughed and straightened slightly. Our actions made up for our slightly moody traveling companions. Although they were usually, cleaning up for our miss behaviors, I guess it was our turn.

We read the room keys dragging Percy and Annabeth behind us, up to the third floor. The second they got in they ended collapsing on the bed and falling asleep, still fully clothed, shoes and all. I set all the bags down and sat in the desk chair near the sliding balcony door. Thalia sat on the edge of the other bed facing me.

"What do think her story was?" She whispered to me, her eyes darting around my face.

"Well she got those scars from somewhere, and she was pretty timid around Percy, I'm going to put my vote on abuse. I know what it looks like. Women like that are wary around men, and Percy wasn't in one of his finer moods." I said lolling my head against the back of the chair.

"Aren't you insightful today?" Thalia purred, tilting her head to the side.

"Aren't I insightful every day?" I asked, feigning false hurt.

"Well, it depends, sometimes you're dumber than rocks, and sometimes you're unbelievably smart." She said, thoughtfully.

"I'm not sure if I should be hurt, or delighted." I said, raising one eyebrow and tapping my chin.

"Just take the compliment and run with it!" She said throwing her hands up exasperated.

"I think I just might."

I sat next to her and leaned back onto the bed. She followed, only flipped on her stomach.

"We should thumb wrestle." She stated, holding her hand out.

"Okay fine, but we all know I'm better at it than you. My thumb is like the hulk." I stated, in a matter-of-fact way.

"Does your thumb turn green when it's angry too?" She asked, wrapping her hand around mine.

Her quick nimble thumb dodged my huge one quickly. We kept at this me trapping her, and she trapping me, each of us wriggling under the other's grip. Finally I got a good hold on her thumb, pinning hers to mine for five seconds.

She grumbled angrily and took her hand back.

"That's not fair, your thumbs bigger than mine!" She complained half-heartedly.

"You weren't complaining when you were so sure you were going to win!" I chuckled and grabbed her hands, swinging her over my hips.

"The loser has to kiss the winner." I said, puckering up, reaching towards her.

"We never agreed on that Nico." She said, glaring playfully.

"It's an unspoken rule. Now kiss me loser."

She shook her head, "Fine, then I'll kiss you."

I brought my head up to hers before she had to move it. My back was rounded towards the bed, so I relaxed and Thalia followed.

She ended up one leg slung across mine, her head on my chest, inhaling and exhaling deeply. I wondered where all her energy and playfulness came from. I suppose we feed on each other in that department. I decided to give into my exhaustion, letting sleep consume me.

Percy's POV

I woke up with a horrible taste in my mouth that comes from long deep sleeps. Boy was this bed comfortable; it was probably a pillow top. I opened my eyes with some difficulty, and inhaled deeply, coughing. I rolled my shoulder stretching and moaned. Everything hurt, gods this was a terrible feeling. I'd only felt it before after big battles. That was muscle soreness; this was a different type of ache. I looked over and saw a blond mass of hair next to me. That could only be Annabeth, who was still sleeping based on her breathing.

I moved very carefully, wincing all the while. I looked over at Thalia and Nico who looked to be very comfortable, limbs entangled together in a large mass. I could see the content smile on Nico's face. Either he was having a really great dream, or he was happy where he was. It was most likely the latter. I very carefully moved Annabeth's legs and arms off of me.

I sat up quickly and was over came with a wave of nausea. I quietly ran over to the bathroom and sat on the cold tile next to the toilet. Why was it so cold? It was the middle of the summer, not shivering weather.

I'd seen this before, but how could this happen? Why now, when it matters most?

Oh gods, I could not be sick.

**Okay, I know how I want this story to end, but now I have to get there. I'll try to update quicker this time. Tell me your favorite line from this chapter, and your favorite television show.**

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	27. Chapter 27

**I want to start of saying to everyone that I'm terribly sorry, but I've come back to fan fiction. I have a mountain of excuses I could use, but I've dedcided not to say a thing. Thank you to who ever continues to read this story, I love you all. **

**On a happy note, I've finally gotten my own horse. He's my pride and joy, and I spend a whole lot of time with him. I just figured I'd share that with you. It's one of the only things I have a burning passion to do. **

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Annabeth's POV

My head lolled sideways off of the soft pillows, sending me into the hazy stupor of waking up. The one eye that wasn't plastered to the pillow with unfortunate drool, opened and shut slowly. I closed my mouth smacking my gums, tired of that awful taste in my mouth. Travis used to compare it to a fairy taking a dump in your mouth in the middle of the night. I politely admonished him, though inside I couldn't agree more. I stretched my limbs and withered against the sheets, wishing that I could go back to my dream. The more I thought about it the less I remembered actually, so it couldn't have been that exciting. I turned my head to the side, abruptly remembering that Percy had laid in that very spot, less than eight hours prior to this precise moment.

Percy typically wasn't an early riser, so I was confused, and considering our situation, slightly worried. I sat up and looked at Thalia and Nico who looked so wonderfully comfortable. I grumbled slightly at that, because less than five minutes ago I felt the same way. Hearing the sound of water running, I came to the conclusion that he decided to nab the shower first. He had better not used all the hot water, or he'd face the wrath of the almighty Annabeth Chase. Well actually, the literally numbing combination of Thalia and Nico's ire.

The water stopped and I busied myself with the task of shuffling through my bag, grabbing things I would need to get ready for the daunting day faced before me. The door opened slowly and out stepped Percy. His hair was still dripping and his shirt sticking to his chest in some still damp places. He looked so defeated, that would be the only way to possibly describe it. The ever present dark circles under his eyes had darkened, his usually sun kissed skin was impossibly pale for his standards.

"Percy, what's going on?" I questioned hesitantly.

"Well I don't exactly feel right, although the hot shower helped." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"You don't feel right? What exactly is wrong?" I questioned, frowning.

"Well, I ache everywhere for starters." He stated, exasperated.

Confused, I stepped towards him, "Are you cold?"

"Well yeah, aren't you?" He said, eyeing the shorts in my hands suspiciously.

Knowing exactly what was going on I laid my hand on his burning forehead, he then winced slightly.

"Percy, you're sick." I said, glancing at his eyes, which were bloodshot.

He sighed, "I'd figured that much already, I just wasn't sure. I'm not sick that often."

I could feel my face twist into a look of concentration to rifle through my bag. If I was correct then-

"Aha!" I called out, twisting the bag in my hand.

Percy stared at me, blinking slowly; trying to make sense of what I possessed could do for him.

"Don't you understand? It's the Amphisbaena skin!" I exclaimed, probably a little too excited.

"Your point is?" He asked, waving his hands slowly in a circular motion.

"I read somewhere that it can cure sickness, and I've been saving it in case we didn't have much nectar or ambrosia left." I said, smirking in my accomplishment.

Nico suddenly sat upright, his eyes half open, "That's all fine and dandy, but did you really have to holler about a damn snake skin?"

I rolled my eyes and grumbled to myself, he then collapsed back onto the bed.

"Well how do we put this to use?" Percy inquired curiously.

"It said that we needed to turn it into a paste, you know grind it up with water." I explained, searching the room for something we could use.

Percy suggested I look through the small kitchenette that was in the hotel room. I found a bowl and a spoon, which would have to do for the time being. I then quickly made a paste and smeared it on Percy's chest, which was gladly bare.

"I think I'll wake up Nico and Thalia now." I said to Percy, which he responded with, "Good luck."

I decided I'd try my luck with Nico first since he was still slightly awake. I prodded him with my finger in the arm, which didn't even make him stir. I then pushed him and shook him, which I think roused him some, but he decided not to respond. Fed up, I then grabbed a pillow and repeatedly hit him with it. My words to him ranged from, "Nico time to wake up!" to, "Damn you Nico, wake up!"

He finally opened his eyes and glared at me, sitting up slowly. His glare weren't even weaker in the morning like you'd expect, they actually seemed worse.

"You said you'd go to the underworld this morning before we go check out the stadium." I reminded him quickly.

"Well why isn't lover boy over there awake?" He asked, nodding towards Percy.

I groaned, "He's sick and I used that snake skin from a while ago, maybe that's a side effect."

Nico grunted, and then shuffled into the bathroom with his things. Well there goes my second spot in line for a shower. I decided to let Thalia and Percy rest to get there strength up, and slinked into the bathroom when Nico was finished. By the time I got out, Thalia's bandages were changed, and he was gone.

Nico's POV

I was quickly sucked into the shadows, letting myself be devoured. I had to press harder to get into the underworld, as Hades was still week. The chilling cold numbed my skin, and the wind roared in my ears, hearing not only wind, but growls as well.

Tripping as I was released from the darkness's' clutching hold, I had landed in the Fields of Asphodel. Looking around, I located which direction Hades' palace was, and walked quickly towards there. I heard the screams of anguish and misery from the fields of punishment and didn't even blink an eye. By this time in my life, I'd gotten over that they were people, but they were horrible people. Now in my brain they almost passed through as a sound effect, in one ear, and out the other.

I entered Hades palace and the doors closed loudly pushed shut by the clinking skeleton warriors. His dark robes swirled as he swung towards me. I looked closely, and felt something was off. Maybe it was how the constantly ignited fire behind his pupils looked a little dimmer, or how his obsidian hair was dull and stringy. He was weaker, you could even tell by his stance.

"You have come here because?" He asked in his still booming powerful voice.

"I need to ask of a favor." I said, struggling with how to word my answers.

"What makes you think I'll help you?" He questioned, narrowing his impossibly dark eyes.

"Well you tried to help us, even when Zeus was cracking down on you. Now when he's merely draining you, slowly I might add. His attentions are elsewhere." I answered calmly.

"True, I can't lose another child Nico. Now what is it you need?" Hades answered, a flash of affection appearing, then disappearing twice as fast.

"Could you maybe find us some armor? I have my own in the armory, but my friends need armor without feet, hands, and face. It also needs to fit under clothes. I can fine tweak mine, but can't make three more like it."

"Go now to the armory, find the head skeleton, tell him what you said are my orders. If they don't believe you, said him to me." He said, turning back around, the tortured souls on his robes swirling.

I left, glaring at the skeleton warriors, who I suspected would glare back if they had eyes. Walking a short distance from Hades' palace to the armory, where his own Helm and armor were made. Once inside the smell of metal and smoke overwhelmed me, the heat was stifling, and the noise was deafening.

I had located what I thought was the head skeleton based by the exuberant, feathery, large hat he wore. I almost laughed when I saw it, and the way he wore it as an honor. I walked up to the large rock he stood on, looking over everyone.

"I need you to make me three sets of armor. They need open feet, hands and heads. Two females, I think you've seen them before, Thalia Grace and Annabeth Chase. Also, who you've definitely seen, Percy Jackson, please get a move on, I'm due to leave soon." I said, casually.

"Why should I do that for you?" He scoffed.

Fire ignited in my eyes as I turned back to him. I wasn't going to send him to my father, I'd been having a hell of a day, and I'd deal with him myself.

Thalia's POV

Annabeth once again went over the plan we'd concocted to find a way into the Olympic Stadium before the opening ceremony later today. It was risky, but it had to work, we needed those blueprints. All of the venues had separate blue prints; we need each and every one. Who knew what tricks Nike might have tucked up her sleeve?

Suddenly Nico stepped out of the shadows stumbling slightly, his arms full of armor in different colors.

He took a deep breath, "I've got the armor, and it's specially molded to each of us."

He handed a shiny, silver colored suit to Thalia, the gold set to Percy, and the bronze to me.

"Thalia, the workers molded silver into yours, as it's the best conductor of all metals. Percy they forged gold into yours, because the most resistant to sea water corrosion. Bronze is less stiff than most metals; they incorporated some into your armor Annabeth. "

After everyone thanked him Annabeth inquired about his armor, "What about yours?"

He smiled and hefted his armor up; it was black with silver swirls all over it, very breath taking, "My father gave it to me for my fifteenth birthday. I'm not particularly sure what's in it, but I can sense some obsidian."

We nodded and I examined the armor, it had some type of thin woolen padding around the interior. Armor at camp was usually thick leather, and we wore clothes underneath, not metal from the underworld like these.

"Okay, so what should we wear underneath the armor?" I questioned, slightly inquisitive.

"Well tight pants, and long sleeved shirts would be ideal, but we'll be wearing clothes over the armor as well to blend in." Nico explained, obviously having thought this through before-hand.

"Won't it be pretty hot? That's a lot of layers." Percy asked, pulling at his collar as if he was already warm.

"It will be air conditioned in the stadium, so we shouldn't be too hot. Plus being a warm is a good price to pay to insure lessened battle wounds." Annabeth said, hardly worried about the temperature.

"We'd better go take a look around, but don't wear the armor. We'll be coming back here later, and we shouldn't encounter much trouble now." I said, hoping for the best.

"Now how should we approach this?"

Annabeth's POV

"I can't believe you made me sneak in through the employee entrance. My Russian accent isn't even that good!" I whispered to the cleaning cart I was pushing.

"Well Anniebell, Thalia can't manipulate the mist with a whole group people, it's too draining, and of course Percy wanted to take the lead. Could you think of a better way to get us in without suspicion?" Nico whispered, clearly agitated, from behind the wall of toilet paper.

I grumbled protests to myself as I marched around looking for the mechanical office. They must keep a set of blue prints in there for repairs, it was the best lead I had. Percy and Thalia went into the actual stadium, examining the entire interior, looking for ways to spot Nike, and inferring spots she would be in.

My eyes widened as a man in a suit walked purposely down the hallway towards me. I adjusted the bandana I'd used to brush the hair out of my face, and looked straight ahead willing him not to notice me.

"Excuse me; are you part of the janitorial staff?" He asked, making it clear that his status was above mine.

"Da, vat is it you need?" I said struggling to incorporate an accent.

"The men's bathroom is a mess; you're expected to clean it up." He said with scorn, and started to walk away.

I saw Nico stick his hand out and trip him, and then the man stumbled and looked around. I looked at him with a confused expression, and he decided to continue on.

"Nico you're going to get us caught before we even find the blue prints!" I hissed to him, dropping a bottle on his head through the hole in the top.

He murmured some choice words, as I continued on. We had reached the boiler room, and I suspected the engineering office was close by. I was right, and fortunately it was unlocked. I ripped off my rubber gloves and riffled through the desk drawers, finding nothing besides office supplies, candy bars, and booze.

"Check the file cabinet." Nico suggested, poking his head through the top of the cart.

My hand swung and I knocked over a cup of coffee onto what I hopped wasn't an important document. My attention was then drawn to a rolled up sheets on the side of his desk. I unrolled them and clapped my hands with glee.

"What exactly are you doing in my office?"

My breathing quickened as my eyes widened, I was caught. I screwed my face into a smile, and turned towards the man, the blueprints shoved down my smock. I looked towards my cleaning cart and found toilet paper all over the floor. Nico was somewhere in this room.

My eyes darted quickly all around until I found him standing behind the man in his own shadow.

"You call this an office?" Nico asked.

The man's eyes widened and before he could turn around, he was on the floor, unconscious.

**How'd you like my triumphant return to fan fiction! Tell me in a review, I even made it longer than usual! **

**R&R**


	28. Chapter 28

**This chapter is massive. I had a brain storm, and I just had to put it in this chapter. It's literally over three thousand words. I could've cut it in half, then I'd just be delaying the end even more. Please review, it would mean the world to me. We have 250! Can we make it too 300 by the end? Thanks!**

**(PS- I didn't do the individual thanks because there were only five, so I'll put them in the next chapter.)**

_Nico's POV_

Our footsteps bounced against the narrow, whitewash walls that threatened to close in around me. Striding swiftly, our eyes darted everywhere, searching for something that was even the slightest bit off. We finally reached the main stadium, peeking inside; I saw that it was crowded with people. I swore and looked towards Annabeth, gauging her response.

"We need to find Percy and Thalia, and then get out of here." She said, head swiveling, eyes searching for familiar faces.

"I have an idea." I said quickly, "Let's just IM them, tell them to get back to the hotel. We need to bolt, it's only a matter of time before people notice something's up."

"Great idea, it shouldn't be too hard to find water around here." Annabeth said turning around, back the way we came.

"There, it's a water fountain." I said pointing to the fountain down a deserted hallway.

We were soon connected to Thalia, and we quickly got her attention. Her head whipped around, and our eyes connected.

"Oh, I was just about to IM you guys." She said, her eyes dancing around, not paying attention to us.

"What's going on? Where's Percy?" Annabeth questioned, looking confusedly at her.

"Well, he seems to have found Nike." Thalia said, her voice trailing behind her towards the end.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

"Well we found her in one of the trainers' rooms, and she had an athlete with her. She's a track coach for Greece. Percy said that now's the perfect time to strike! She's probably alone by now, and she'll be completely surprised! I told him no, we need to plan, then he just disappeared." Thalia said, getting angrier and more worried with each passing second.

"That's just great; the idiot just went rushing into battle like always." I said seething; his stupid decision could ruin this for us all.

"Maybe he's not as stupid as we think." Annabeth said slowly, but gears turning quickly in her head.

"What?" Thalia said, clearly agitated.

"He's right I suppose, what do we need blue prints for when she's right in front of our face? Why do we need to plan for some surprise, which clearly isn't going to happen? All we need is our gear and we should be fine." Annabeth said, adrenaline clearly pulsing through her.

"Okay, if you really say so, I mean you're the one that wanted the blue prints in the first place." Thalia said, not seeing any flaws.

I on the other hand, didn't think it should be that easy. Really I had no rhyme or reason, but something told me something wouldn't turn out right. I had no evidence, so I couldn't disagree.

"Tell us where you are. I'll shadow travel with each of you, so we can put on our armor. Before we do that though, we need to find kelp head." I wondered, thinking of what Percy could be up too.

"I'm near the front entrance, down the hallway to the left." She said, before swiping her hand through the connection.

Annabeth and I made our way down the hallway Thalia instructed, and we saw her near a set of blue double doors. The sign above them read 'Trainer's lounge.'

"Nike is just behind those doors, so I don't understand where Percy is." Thalia said, confused with Percy's whereabouts.

"Why don't we just IM him like we did Thalia?" I asked, seeing an easy way out.

"If he's near Nike, we could completely give him away." Annabeth exclaimed, not convinced.

"There's a window at the top, if only one of us were tall enough to see in." Thalia said, trying to jump almost two feet.

"Thalia, someone would have to be seven feet tall to see in, let me put you on my shoulders." I said, kneeling before her.

"I like this bowing thing; you should do it more often." She laughed, and then climbed on me.

"Gods Thals, what have you been eating?" I said jokingly, easily taking her weight. She was probably even lighter than before this whole thing started.

She whacked the back of my head, and continued to look through the small glass pane that connected the door to the ceiling.

"No sign of Nike or Percy." She said, clearly confused.

"Are you sure? He might not look the same, Nike would've recognized him. Although I'm not sure where he could've gotten a disguise." Annabeth said, clearly unconvinced.

"Wait, maybe he's the guy in the hat. I can't see his face; he's turned away from me." Thalia said.

I thought quickly for a solution, and only one came to mind. I loudly banged on the door, which sent Annabeth diving for a hiding place. I quickly shoved myself against the wall opposite of the door.

"That's him! The bang got his attention, he's getting up now. Nico put me down, before he slams the door into your head." Thalia exclaimed, wiggling around on my shoulders.

I set her back on the ground and went over to the empty room where Annabeth was hiding in. Percy walked out the doors, eyes glancing around. Thalia caught his attention, signaling for him to close the door. He shut it behind him, and then took off the ridiculous baseball cap he was wearing. We were never fans of headgear.

"Why would you make such a big decision without us?" I hissed and yanked him towards us.

"I was so close; maybe I could've just found the potion without even notifying her that we were around." Percy whispered, trying to get us to see his logic.

"Percy he knows we're around! She's not stupid; she's the one who's baiting us in the first place. If you were caught, you would've sacrificed the element of surprise. It's one of our only advantages at this point!" Annabeth explained, obviously aggravated with Percy.

"Okay I'm sorry! It seemed like a good idea at the time." He said, surrendering to Annabeth's anger.

"I'll bring each of you back to the hotel to prepare for battle. We need to hurry though; Annabeth and I may have set a trigger for people to start looking for us." I said, grabbing Thalia, and pulling her into the shadows.

When we stepped back into the light, Thalia stumbled a bit, but I caught her.

"A little warning would've been nice." She said sarcastically.

"Like I said we need to hurry, now go change into your formfitting clothes." I retorted, dragging out all of the armor.

I then changed quickly, climbing feet first into the bottom half of my armor. No chain mail was needed for this type; we didn't need more weight added to it. I fastened the clasps on the hips myself, which wasn't very easily done, before Thalia came out.

"Could you help me? I've only used metal armor once or twice before, and it'll go faster this way." She asked, obviously annoyed she needed my help.

I nodded, "Put your legs in, I'll do the hip clasps."

I could see goose bumps appear on her arms, when my hand accidentally brushed the exposed skin on her waist. I chuckled to myself, and grabbed the top piece. I was immensely glad that the skeletons could make some strong, but light and thin armor for us. That clunky stuff wouldn't have suited our purposes anyways.

Soon Thalia and I were wearing baggy pants and shirts to conceal the harsh lines of the armor. It changed our body types slightly, maybe our lines straighter, shoulders broader. Her curves almost completely disappeared, which I didn't mind at the time. We didn't need unwanted attention.

We shadow traveled back to Percy and Annabeth, which we surprised. I cleared my throat and their lips detached. Without a word, I grabbed Percy, and into the shadows we went.

_Annabeth's POV_

Percy and Nico were back in record time, considering Percy was quick with his armor. Nico soon took me back with him into the darkness. Shadow traveling wasn't my preferred method, but at the time I was glad Nico had that ability.

"Are you sure this isn't too draining for you Nico? It's a lot of shadow traveling back and forth." I asked, concerned for him.

"My powers don't drain me as much as they used to. Practice makes perfect, remember? Shadow traveling only weakens me slightly." He said, waving me off.

I sighed and disappeared into the bathroom to change into my leggings and long-sleeved shirt. I gathered my blond hair into a pony tail before exiting the bathroom.

"Gods Annabeth, you took the longest time yet. Here I was thinking Thalia took forever." Nico said, sitting up from his position on the couch.

"Ha-ha Nico very funny." I said, tossing a glare his way.

Truth be told, I did take longer than I'd like to. I'd discovered I was spotting slightly, which calmed my worries. I hadn't had my period in a month. It was probably from all the stress I was under.

Nico helped me into my armor, the bottom we had no trouble with; it was the top that had a hitch. When he went to clasp it, he paused.

"What? Just clasp it so we can leave already." I said, looking over my shoulder at him.

"I think the skeletons got your body type wrong, it's going to be a little snug on you." He said his head tilted in confusion.

"Okay, fine, just pull it together." I sucked in my breath and he stretched the clasps enough to bring them together.

My breasts were slightly spilling out the top, which wasn't comfortable at all. I burned tomato red, slightly embarrassed. I hadn't grown that much since my last visit to the underworld had I?

Nico handed me my white sweatpants and blue shirt, his checks slightly red.

"I thought they would've known what you look like, you've been to the underworld many times, and they don't forget the living souls that come down there." He apologized; I could tell he blamed himself.

"It's not that tight, honestly." I lied, trying to make him feel better.

"If you say so." He grabbed me again and we were soon met with Thalia and Percy

They turned towards me and their eyeballs almost feel out of there heads. Percy's whole head turned beet red, and he turned his attention to Nico. I pulled my shirt up, subconsciously, there that was better.

"Yeah, the skeletons weren't as good with measurements as I thought. Anyways, where is Nike?" Nico said, avoiding the topic that I asked him too.

"She's alone in the arena with one of the athletes. We have perfect timing." Percy said, clicking riptide into a sword.

Thalia whipped my knife and sword out of her backpack, and grabbed her collapsible bow and quiver also. She twirled her silver-plated, celestial bronze sword, an evil grin forming on her face.

"Let's do this."

_Thalia's POV _

Percy and Nico whooped in agreement, Annabeth just smiled and shook her head. She then slid her sword into its sheath and twirled her knife just like I did.

I winked at her and raised an eyebrow looking at her chest. Her face burned and she pulled up her shirt once more. Now you couldn't see anything that she didn't want you to see.

Nico summoned his Stygian Iron sword, laughing at a joke that Percy said. I could see the laughter and excitement in his dark eyes, it was beautiful.

I could see lust and love dancing around in Percy's green eyes, turning them into a slightly darker shade. He kissed Annabeth running his fingers through her curly locks. For once I smiled slightly, I happy for them, instead of disgusted. Aphrodite was getting to me.

"You know you're even prettier when you smile." Nico whispered in my ear, catching me by surprise.

I jumped, and turned towards him, he had a smirk smeared across his lips. I laughed and tilted my head back; he grinned and grabbed my face in his hands. He kissed me long and gentle, and then he pulled away, his lips lingering on mine.

As always Percy and Annabeth took the lead, leaving our secluded area, marching towards the main arena. I rolled my eyes and followed with Nico, our hands clasped together.

Annabeth poked her head out into the main hallway, "It's mostly empty like before, plus it's getting later, so people are starting to filter out."

"Perfect, so who's going to distract her?" I asked.

"Well, I was thinking Nico might be good for the job. I doubt that she's seen you since the Titan war; you've been in the underworld a lot. Plus, you can blend into the shadows, surprise her." Annabeth said, seeing the surprised look on Nico's face.

"Okay, let's go find her then." Nico said, nodding at Annabeth.

I paled slightly, worried about Nike seeing Nico first. Nico sensed that and squeezed my hand; I looked up at him and gave him a slight smile.

When we reached the arena we were met with a women flashing by us in light blue shorts. We slammed ourselves against the wall, hoping she didn't see us. She either didn't because she was running too fast, or choose to ignore us. Either one I was thankful for.

I could see Nike at the North end of the arena, far away.

"59.6 δευτερόλεπτα δεν είναι αρκετά γρήγορa!" She screamed, yelling at the obviously tired runner.

She meant, '55.6 seconds, not fast enough!'

I have no idea what distance she was running, but it probably would've taken me two minutes to do it. That woman was ripped, not an ounce of fat on her.

We made our way toward her, she sent the athlete back to the locker room, to get more water. Her back was turned away from us, when Nico disappeared. He emerged from the shadow of the timer, right beside her.

"I believe you have something that I need." He told her, his face right next to hers, his blade across her neck.

She laughed before reaching her hand up and twisting Nico's hand away with an extreme amount of force. He yelped and slashed her scalp, making golden ichor drip from her blond French braid. Percy and Annabeth took off running, Percy got a good slice to her back, before she whipped around and roundhouse kicked him in the face.

Percy stumbled backwards, but still remained upright, much to his credit. Nike was also the goddess of speed and strength, so she fought in hand and hand combat incredibly well.

Anticipating this, I notched an arrow in my bow and shot at her, I luckily caught her arm. She was an incredibly hard target, especially because, Annabeth and Nico were still slashing with all there power. Yet, she still managed to avoid most of their blows. Percy got a lucky slash at her middle, ichor spewing out of it. I shot my last arrow at her, my quiver no longer enchanted. The perks of being a hunter were gone, but the skills were still there, because my arrow hit her right in her chest.

Nike pulled the arrow out of her chest, and looked at me angrily. She then ran towards me, at the speed of cheetah. Before I knew it, I was slammed onto the ground and my own arrow stabbed through my left hand. I pulled out my sword and got a good slash at her eye before Nico had pulled her off me and thrown her into a bench.

I pulled the arrow out of my hand with a cry of pain. I was too weak to fight so I had only one option, my powers. Electricity spewed out of my sword, narrowly missing Annabeth but hitting Nike. She wasn't finished yet so she grabbed Nico and threw him against the wall. I cried out, but I was unable to move. Hell I was barely able to keep my eyes open. I saw the blood seeping out of hand and couldn't help but close my eyes.

_Nico's POV_

I got up slowly, aching everywhere. I knew that if I used my powers, I would be down for the count. All that shadow traveling did weaken me, despite what I told Annabeth. Percy and Annabeth were still fighting Nike but she had weakened considerably. I made my way towards them; I know where the potion was. She was very over protective of her right side, and I could see a small vial in her pocket.

"Percy! It's in her pocket!" I screamed, knowing that I was no good to them anymore.

Nike heard me and was momentarily distracted. Percy slashed her leg, taking a considerable chunk out of it. Annabeth slashed her cheek with her knife, angering Nike further. Knowing she was done for, she used the last of her strength to punch Annabeth in the gut, sending her flying. Annabeth hit the wall and ended up a pile of limbs. I stumbled my way towards her, feeling a life source draining.

Percy was then distracted. This gave Nike the opportunity to nail him in the side of the head. He was then disoriented, but still able to give a cry of rage, and chop of her left foot. Nike was on the ground wailing in pain Percy fished the vile of potion out of her pocket. He examined it, and somehow Nike was still able to crawl towards her. I changed my direction to Percy.

"Nico, catch!" He screamed before Nike grabbed his ankle, and then they disappeared in a cloud of dust.

I ran desperately needing to catch the glass vile, I then dove towards it, catching it in my hands. I whooped, finally happy that we had what we were searching for.

I heard Annabeth's cry of pain, and then glanced at Thalia. I decided Annabeth was in greater distress because I could feel a life fading from her direction. As I came closer I saw her crying from her paralyzed position on the ground, her leg obviously pointing the wrong direction. Blood soaked her white sweatpants, turning them red.

I focused on her life source and felt it still strong, and then I was immensely confused. I listened to her heart closely, a power I had developed since training with my father. It allowed me to tell when someone was fearful, lying, and the most obvious, dieing. Her heartbeat was strong, but I could her something underneath it. Another fluttering heart beat.

It then dawned on me, as the soft heartbeat came to a stop. Annabeth was fine, but she was pregnant, and her baby had died.

Percy's POV

After I desperately threw Nico the potion, Nike grabbed me and we were suddenly in Olympus. All her wounds were healed, and her long blond braid even looked freshly done.

She literally dragged me to the throne room, the doors closing behind us. Zeus as always, was sitting at his throne, but this time Ares was at his side, almost like he was guarding him.

"I have brought you one of the wanted half-bloods; I was promised the award of becoming an Olympian." Nike said, obviously happy that she would have a throne in this room.

"Ah yes, you know where the other four are also, correct?" Zeus asked, surprisingly calm that I was here.

"Yes I do, two of them are unconscious at the moment also." Nike said smiling cruelly.

"Very well, make him kneel for me." Zeus said happily, the glee obviously kicking in.

Nike stood me in front of Zeus, and then knocked me behind the knees with enough force to make me kneel.

"Ah Perseus, we meet again." Ares sneered, unhappy to see me.

"Nice to see you too, you son of a bitch." I hissed, not liking where this was going.

"Enough, I am going to kill you; neither your parents nor your friends can do anything about it." Zeus said, bringing his sword to my neck.

Then arrows whizzed right by my head, to then impale the wall right next to Zeus' head.

"Stop, the future has changed!"

I was never in my life happier to see Apollo, the god of music, healing, and most importantly, prophecy.

**I know, you probably hate me right now. Relax, you'll get more details next chapter. **

**R&R!  
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	29. Chapter 29

**Sorry once again for the outstanding wait, I have a few new projects in the flames. Including some PJO fics!**

**Here's a New Years Gift! Happy 2014!**

_Percy's POV_

I heard collective gasps across the throne room, as everyone swiveled to stare at the sun god. I sighed with relief, and some tension was released from my muscles.

"What's the meaning of this?" Zeus demanded, eyes blazing.

"An unseen event has occurred and it has changed the future monumentally, so the children are no longer a threat to us." Apollo replied smoothly, his bow still clenched in his hand.

Zeus slowly removed his sword from my neck, "How do I know you aren't lying? After all, you did protest to the execution of these fugitives."

"I can show you if you wish." Apollo said, taking a few steps towards Zeus.

Before Apollo could get much closer, Zeus pointed his sword in his direction.

"That is close enough! I believe you if you are willing to show me, and you know how much I hate you meddling with my mind." Zeus said with a huff.

"As you wish father." Apollo said, trying to contain a cocky smirk, "Well what are you still doing here Percy? I believe you are needed back with your friends."

I glanced around warily, meeting the caged eyes of many gods. Deciding to take the chance, I quickly bolted out of the throne room.

Suddenly Apollo appeared in front of me, "Well you don't think you're going to be able to run to Utah now do you? That would take a while, so I'll do you a solid." 

I didn't have time to utter any words before, for the second time today; I was transported by a god. I was dropped suddenly to the same spot I was where Nike took me to Olympus. Apollo was no where to be seen so I assumed he had vacated the area.

"Percy!" I heard Nico shout from against the wall.

My head snapped in that direction, seeing Annabeth splayed on the ground. My heart pounded too loud and much too fast in my ears as I sprinted over to him, falling to the ground beside her.

I started murmuring useless words in a bit of a panic. I remember saying things about how okay everything was going to be. Nico slapped my arm with half his usual strength.

"Percy she's fine, the blood isn't from any thing life threatening. Besides it's only a little, there's a lot less than what it looks like. She hit her head and passed out, and I think her leg might be broken. Her heartbeat is strong though." He stated trying to soothe me somewhat.

"Where's Thalia?" I asked somewhat calmly.

Nico paled a bit and started struggling to stand. I grabbed his hands and hauled him to his feet, supporting him while we walked to Thalia.

We dropped beside her and I noticed the arrow wound going through her hand, but besides that we believed she passed out for exhaustion. She was still recovering from the incident earlier this week, so she was weak to start with.

Nico was shoveling through her bag looking for what was left of the nectar to spit between her and Annabeth. He pulled out the canteen victoriously and was a little disheartened when we realized there was roughly an ounce of liquid left.

He poured a small amount into Thalia's mouth and I then proceeded to lift her up and carry her back to Annabeth, hauling Nico with me. He poured the remaining liquid in Annabeth's mouth and they started to stir slightly.

Thalia's eyes snapped open with a gasp, and her eyes rapidly searched our faces. Her attention turned to her hand, which had healed considerably, but not completely. She whined a little with pain and sympathy towards Nico and Annabeth. Nico smiled slightly and told her we used all of the Nectar and he would be fine later.

"What's going on with Annabeth?" She whispered, pointedly watching me.

"We all have a lot of explaining to do, so I figure we should start with what happened in Olympus, and then tell more once she wakes up." I said wisely, looking at Thalia and Nico. 

"Do you think you're strong enough to walk?" Nico asked Thalia, eyeing her warily.

She nodded and stood up slowly, and started walking slowly to the empty room we were in before. She grabbed Nico and they supported each other as they walked. I hefted Annabeth into my arms and walked behind them.

Eventually I laid Annabeth down gently and sat cross-legged in a circle with Thalia and Nico.

"So assuming she will need some time before she wakes up, I'll just start telling you guys what happened while I was in Olympus." I suggested.

They agreed and motioned me to begin, which I did. I recapped everything that happened in detail, from Nike taking me, to Apollo bringing me back.

"I can't seem to figure out what changed the future so drastically and suddenly. Why didn't Apollo see it coming?" I wondered aloud.

"The only way Apollo didn't see it coming would be if a god interfered." Thalia said quizzically.

Nico looked like he wanted to add something but he stayed silent, I looked at him confused.

Just when I was about to say something to Nico, Annabeth groaned and her head lolled sideways. Our eyes widened collectively and our attention turned to her. She moved slightly, whining and whimpering while stretching. Her eyes opened and she smiled slightly, her eyes meeting ours, sensing we were okay.

"So I take it everything ended up well?" She asked hoarsely.

Nico chuckled started to recount my story of what happened in Olympus. I shifted unsettled by the blood she hadn't seemed to notice yet. I could tell Nico was even worse; he fidgeted uncomfortably, and had a slightly wild look in his eyes.

Annabeth nodded at appropriate times, and then she suddenly became pale.

"Nico I-" She started, but apparently he had other ideas.

"I'm going to address the elephant in the room, and I would appreciate it if you'd all brace yourselves. I can already cut through the tension in this room with a knife." He said, hurriedly continuing on.

"Annabeth, you were pregnant." He said, with a pained look.

I sat there shocked, the word _pregnant _running through my mind over, and over again. My eyes glazed over and every word they spoke went right over my head. I ended up having a mental breakdown in the confines of my mind.

It was so incomprehensible that I needed to say it out loud.

"Pregnant?"

_Third Person POV_

After Nico uttered those fatal words the group of four was stunned.

"W- Wh- What? That's not possible!" Annabeth said, stuttering at first then shouting.

Percy all but passed out from the situation, sitting there with glazed eyes.

"Annabeth, I heard another heartbeat when you got thrown into that wall." Nico said, as gently as possible.

"Holy shit." Thalia muttered, almost to herself.

"But-But-, I can't be! I got my period!" Annabeth said, with glassy eyes.

"The baby was probably in distress already, considering the stress you've been under. It was probably the start of a miscarriage." Thalia explained, trying to rise to the occasion.

Thalia reached for her best friend's hand, but Annabeth moved away. She retreated into herself, curling her legs up and a choked sob emitting from her throat.

Percy thought that this would be a good time to come back into reality, and he ended up saying the cursed word. This time Annabeth really started to sob, drawing a tear from Percy's eye as well as Nico's.

"That's what this whole thing was about?" a fire lit behind Percy's eyes, "I'm going to slaughter her. I will murder her with my bare hands."

Percy was roaring with rage, his volume level rising by the second, and you could obviously see it by the clenching of his fists and jaw.

"Percy, that baby was already in trouble. Annabeth was bleeding even before Nike threw her across the arena." Thalia reasoned, trying to grab Percy's hand.

He softened slightly, when she grasped it between her two palms, "You need to help Annabeth; you need to be strong for her. Nico can't pick up your slack."

Their attention was turned to where a torn up Annabeth was clinging to the aforementioned child of Hades. His face was screwed up into a mask of sorrow.

Percy scooted towards Annabeth and started with a hesitant, "Hey there wise girl."

She curled up next to Percy, releasing Nico from her grasp. Annabeth buried her head in Percy's chest and he lifted her curled up form onto his lap. She continued to blubber, no one understanding what she meant. His hand stroked her blond hair as he whispered sweet nothings, as tears ran down his own face.

Nico wiped the lone tear that he had shed for the unborn child of wisdom and the sea.

**Please R&R!**

**We're almost at the end of our long journey!**


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